ITS HISTORY. 201 
tions. The long line of Jewish kings disappeared 
in all but the name. The voice of the Old 
Testament prophets ceased, England grew popu- 
lous and cultivated in parts, Julius Cesar invaded 
our shores, and, after a stubborn resistance, put 
Britain under the Roman yoke. And the Bra- 
burn Yew-tree continued to grow stronger and 
stronger amid the change of earthly things, and 
of the destinies of its native land. 
Eleven hundred and fifty years were written 
in unerring characters upon the heart-wood of 
the Braburn Yew. Yet it shewed no symptoms 
of decay; nay, rather it seemed as if the past 
time had only heaped upon it additional strength, 
vigour, and size. Men had long regarded it 
as an object of extreme antiquity, little dream- 
ing that but a third of its life was yet spent, and 
that its evergreen branches should wave over the 
last resting-places of their children of the for- 
tieth generation ! 
There was the silence and darkness of night 
brooding over England. The stars glimmered 
with their diamond-light in the deep, unfathom- 
able, arched heavens. The wind was asleep, the 
earth too slept, and in his rude uncomfortable 
