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instances where the Yew in the church-yard was evidently older thah the 

 •tmcture near which it stood, but he would now only adduce to a Hereford- 

 ■hire Club the yews in Cradley church- yard, near Malvern, because both of 

 these were hollow and of great size (the largest 2G feet in girth), and one of 

 them exhibited that conformation proving an extrenao old age that could not 

 be ascertained by rings of annual growth. (Mr. Lees here exhibited drawings 

 in illustration of his remarks.) The Yew tree grew in the same manner as 

 other dicotyledonous trees, and a section taken of any undecayed bole would 

 show its age by the number of rings of annual growth visible, and thus by 

 taking the average bulk of a hundred years' growth the age of various Yews had 

 been calculated. But the bole of a Yew was subject to decay, like those of 

 other trees, and in the course of centuries the long-deposited heart-wood 

 decayed and became lifeless, but still vegetative life slowly progressed, till at 

 last, as in one of the Cradley yews, there was presented the singular 

 appearance of the brown and dried mummy of the original tree, encased 

 within a subsequent deposition of alburnum or new wood, siipplied from 

 above. In this case, then, the age of the tree could only be shown to be very 

 great, if not beyond computation. The process of the yew's renewal seemed 

 to bg this :— When the bole had become so decayed that the sap could scarcely 

 cii'culate, from its decrepid state, the branches yet young and vigorous were 

 .enabled to pour the alburnum downwards, which by degrees descending year 

 after year, at length encompassed the entire bole, and passed into the earth to 

 form fresh roots for the resuscitated bole. This process might proceed to an 

 unlimited extent, and the enduring yew be re-cased again and again, preserving 

 its identity, if in a somewhat altered form. The Yew has been preserved in 

 churchyards not because it was wanted for the bows of the archers of former 

 days, but for its use in the rites of the church, in proof of which Caxton's 

 " Directions for keeping Feasts all the Year" might be referred to, in which 

 he says, " We tak ewe instede of palme and olyve, and beren about in proces- 

 sion." This was done particularly on Palm Sunday, and some country churches 

 are decorated with yew branches on that Sunday even now. The fact was 

 that, though the rural boivmen might take the buughs of English yew for 

 their bows, the trained aichers of our Plantagcntt monarchs, who were so 

 "dreadful with the bended yew," and with it won the victories of Cressy and 

 Poictiers, preferred foreign yew for their bow staves, which was considered 

 much the best, and required to be well seasoned. There was a statute passed 

 in the 12th of Edward IV. which required that every merchant trader should 

 bring so many bow-staves for every ton of merchandize "imported from 

 Venice or other places fiom whence they had heretofore been procured." 

 This statute was renewed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, from which it was 

 clear that the foreign supply was chit fly looked to for military service, and the 

 native Yew only supplied ordinary bows for deer killing, which could not lead 

 to any great destruction of the tree, as supposed by Mr. Woodhouse. Mr. 

 Lees, in conclusion, contended that the ecclesiastical Yews now enclosed and 



