2S0 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



c'omnioiily yew from funr feet to six feet long, witliout any felt wrap])e(l round the 

 middle of it to stay the hand, as is done at present. Thei'e were, however, two pieces 

 of horn, one at each end, to retain the string, which resembled those now in use. 

 The best wood for the arrows is ash, and the next best birch or hornbeam. The manu- 

 facturers of bows were called honujers, and the arrow-makers^c/(;/;e/-s ; hence surnames 

 very common in England to this time. These manufacturers petitioned Queen Eliza- 

 beth in 1570 to enforce in their favour a statute that every man .should have a bow 

 in his house. She did so, and butts were erected in different places, such as Newington 

 Butts, where every able-bodied man was enjoined to practise the art of shooting the 

 bow. When yew could no longer be obtained of sufficient size to make an entire 

 bow, it struck a bowyer of Manchester of the name of Kelsal, about the end of the 

 sixteenth century, that he might make the back of the bow of another kind of wood, 

 retaining the belly of yew. Ash, elm, and several other woods were used for this 

 purpose, and at last backed bows became so common as almost to supersede the use of 

 self-bows, as those were called made of a single piece. 



The fruit of the yew is applied to no use in Britain, though the kernel of the nut 

 may be eaten, and it is said to afford, by expression, an oil which is good for fattening 

 poultry. Although the fruit of the yew is harmless, the leaves are not so, and serious 

 accidents have resulted from their use. Dr. Taylor, in his work on Poisons, enume- 

 rates several fatal cases which have been caused by the infusion of yew leaves being 

 given to children as a vermifuge. He also mentions a case where the berries acted 

 poisonously, as published by Mr. Hart, of Mansfield. If this be so, the testimony of 

 our friend Gerarde is not of much value. Dr. Taylor says, " There is no doubt that 

 the yew is a powerful poison of the narcotic-irritant class. The nature of the poison- 

 ous principle is unknown, nor is it certain whether, in respect to the berry, the poison 

 is lodged in the pulp or the seed." In the register of deaths for 1838, and again in 

 1840, there appear two cases of females dying from partaking of yew leaves or berries. 

 Mr. Knight, finding that wasps prefer the fruit of the yew to that of the vine, suggests 

 the idea of planting female yews near the vinei'ies. The use of the yew in ancient 

 topiary gardening was very extensive in England and France in the seventeenth 

 century. The practice was rendered fiishionable by Evelyn, previously to which the 

 clipping of trees as garden ornaments was chiefly confined to plants of box, juniper, 

 &c., kept by the commercial gardeners of the day in pots and boxes, and trained for 

 a number of years till the figure required was complete. Sometimes clipped plants 

 of this sort sold for as much as five guineas each. 



The custom of planting yew trees in churchyards and cemeteries has never been 

 satisfactorily explained. Some have supposed that the yew trees were placed near 

 the churches for the purpose of affording branches on Palm Sunday ; others, that 

 they might be safe from cattle, on account of their value in making bows ; others, 

 that their sombre colour and appearance were emblematical of silence and death ; 

 and others, that they were useful in affording shelter to those who came too soon 

 for service. Mr. Loudon quotes an article from the pen of Mr. J. E. Bowman in 

 the " Magazine of Natural History," in which he says, " It seems most natural and 

 simple to believe that, being indisputably indigcnoiis, and being, from its perennial 

 verdure, its longevity, and the durability of its wood, at once an emblem and a 

 specimen of immortality, its brandies would be employed by our Pagan ancestors, 

 on their first arrival here, as the best substitute for the cypress, to deck the graves of 

 the dead, and for other sacred .purposes." As it is the policy of innovators in religion 

 to avoid, unnecessary interference with matters not essential, these, Avith many other 

 customs of heathen origin, would be retained and engrafted on Christianity on its first 

 introduction. History and tradition concur in ic^lling ns that this was the case, and 



