CONIFER^E. 281 



that the yew was also closely connected, in the superstitions of our simple forofuthers, 

 with ghosts and fairies. In tlie woi-ks of a very ancient Welsh hard wo arc told of 

 two churches renowned for their prodigious yew trees, " the niiriHlcr of KHgor and 

 that of Iloiillan, of celebrity for sheltering yews." Ileidlan signifies an oil grovr, 

 thus proving that its church stood where Druid worship had been perforniod. Can 

 we, then, longer doubt the real origin of planting yew trees in our churchyards ? If 

 it be said that this usutil though not natural situation of the yew tree proves tho 

 venerable specimens Avhich we find in churchyards not to be older than tho introduc- 

 tion of Christianity, it may be replied that our earliest Christian churches were gene- 

 rally erected on the site of a heathen temple, and that at least one motive for placing 

 churches in such situations would be their proximity to trees already sacred, vene- 

 rable for size, and indispensable in their religious rites. That these rites were per- 

 formed, and altars erected in groves from the remotest anticjuity, we know fnjm tho 

 Pentateuch. The devotions and sacrifices of Baal among the Moabites, and tho 

 idolatrous rites of the Canaauitcs and other tribes of Gentiles, were performed in 

 groves and high places. The Druids chose for their places of worship the tops of 

 wooded hills, where, as they allowed no covered temples, they cleared out an oj)cn 

 space, and there erected their circles of stone. Many of the remote Welsh churches 

 are on little eminences among wooded hills. Mr. Rootse}-, of Bristol, hius suggested 

 " that our words kirk and chm'ch might probably have originated in the word cerrig, 

 a stone or circle of stones, the first churches having been placed within these circular 

 stone enclosures." The Rev. W. T. Bree suggests, in the "^Magazine of Natural 

 History," that churches were built in yew groves, or near large old yew trees, aa 

 more likely than that the yews were planted after the churches were built. 



The practice of clipping the yew into geometrical forms in gardens was most prevalent 

 from the time of Charles I. to the latter end of William III., when it gradually gavo 

 way. In some of the old college gardens at Oxford, and in some old private gardens in 

 various parts of England, these cui'ious figures, niches, arcades, or pilasters may still 

 be seen. It may be mentioned as a historical fact that De CandoUe adojited the yew 

 tree as a sort of standard by which to determine the age of trees generally from tho 

 number of layers of wood in their trunks. The reasons why he appears to have pre- 

 ferred the yew are, that of this tree there are a greater number of authentic records 

 of the age of individual specimens than of most other trees, and because the wood is 

 of slower growth and greater durabihty than that of any other European tree. Tho 

 old name applied to those who carried arms, and were the trusty " yeomen " of olden 

 times, seems to have been derived from the " Eugh " or " Yeir," the archers of tho 

 period carrying bows of yeiv. 



The yew has afforded numerous images to poets from the time of Homer, who six-aks 

 of the ancient inhabitants of Crete as being " dreadful with the bended yew." VirgU 

 notices the elasticity of the yew in the " ^neid " : — 



" This foul reproach Acanius could not bear 

 With patience, or a vow'd revenge forbear. 

 At the fall stretch of both his hands he drew, 

 And almost join'd the horas of the tough yew." 



Herrick alludes to the presence of the yew in funeral obsequies in his address to the 



yew and the cypress : — 



" Both of you have 

 Relation to the grave ; 



VOL. VIII. O 



