124 ADDENDA TO PAPER ON DARLEY YEW. 



always used cypress and yew signals to denote a house in 

 mourning. Euripides, Suetonius, Virgil, and Ovid all mention 

 this. What more likely than that the Romans carried this idea 

 with them into England, and taught it to the Britons. As time 

 went on, churches were built, and bodies were buried in close 

 proximity to them. Yew trees, as representing the soul's immor- 

 tality, would consequently be planted near them. Palm branches 

 would be wanted to carry in procession on Palm Sunday, but 

 there being none, the yew tree was close to the church, would 

 answer the purpose very well, and was used as such. The reason 

 assigned for yew trees appearing in churchyards, " that they 

 provided archers with bows," is, I think, quite erroneous. English 

 yew was the worst of all yew for this purpose. A statute of 

 Elizabeth says a foreign yew bow was to cost 6s. 8d. ; second 

 sort, 3s. 4d. ; coarser sort, 2s. ; English yews, 2s. There is no 

 statute or proclamation known in which it is ordered to plant yew 

 trees in churchyards ; and if this was required to be done, there 

 certainly would be. Why churchyards, instead of plantations, 

 should have been used for yew cultivation is not easy to under- 

 stand — probability all points the other way. Giraldus Cambrensis, 

 who visited Ireland in 1184, found yew trees growing there in 

 churchyards. To this day yew is used there instead of palms on 

 Palm Sunday, and called palm. Yew trees in East Kent are also 

 still called palms. The cypress represents in Asia what the yew 

 does in Europe. All Mahommedan cemeteries are covered with 

 the former. The ancient idea of the soul's immortality being 

 represented by an evergreen tree is symbolized still in Asia by the 

 cypress, and in Europe by the yew. 



