YEW 71 



Many noble yew-trees are in existence, and of these 

 a great number will be found in our old country church- 

 yards. Why this should be so is an unsolved problem. 

 Some would persuade us that they were planted there to 

 assist in the production of all those long bows that England 

 once needed ; some that their sombre shade might solemnise 

 the thoughts and remind all of the days of mourning and 

 the silent resting-place ; some that their far-spreading 

 branches might make a welcome defence against fierce sun, 

 or driving hail, or what else might mar the funeral rites ; 

 while others tell us that as they stand unmoved, genera- 

 tion after generation of humanity laid beneath their shade, 

 they, clad in unchanging verdure, are to each and all the 

 emblem of immortality. Some would have it that the 

 yew-tree was sacred to the Druids and their disciples, 

 though of this there is no definite evidence, and that the 

 founders of Christian churches, raising their buildings on 

 the sites of the temples of the older faith, yet left the old 

 trees standing. Judging by modern feeling, it would seem 

 most improbable that the new shrines should be reared on 

 ground soaked with the blood of the victims of such awful 

 cruelty as the Druidic rites are known to have fostered ; 

 but perhaps other men other manners, and such dehberate 

 occupation of the old sites might be held to more distinctly 

 show to all the victory of the Cross. 



It may at once be replied that if the trees had a 

 religious significance to the disciples of Druidism, their 

 destruction by the adherents to Christianity would be 

 inevitable ; but this is not necessarily so. Even in things 

 evil there may be something of good, and if we assume — 

 and the assumption has been made, though apparently on 



