123 EXCURSION FROM RUAfiON 



eafl Kent the yew-trees are to this day called patmsi 

 It Is therefore more than probable that the palmg 

 were no other than the branches of yew-trees^ 

 ■which are not only always green, but ufually in 

 bloom about this time \ and one or two trees, the 

 number ufually found in each church-yardj would 

 be amply fufficient for the purpofe *. 



Yew-trees may alfo have been confidered emble- 

 matical of the ftate of mankind. The leaves having 

 a moll polfonous quahty, may have been thought 

 ireprefentative of mortality ; whilft the durable fo- 

 liage, and the long period through which they 

 ilourilh, of two or three centuries, are not unaptly 

 fignificant of immortality and eternity. 



Bangor Iscoed 



Is fontewhat more than two miles beyond Overton, 

 It is fituated on the banks of the Dee, v/hich here 

 flows under an elegant {tone bridge of five arches. 



This place has its chief celebrity from having 

 been the fite of the mod ancient monaftery in Bri- 

 tain, founded, as the old writers affert, by LuciuSy 

 the. Jon of Coel, and firft Chriftian king of Britain, 

 fon^ewhat prior to the year icof. Lucius formed 



* Gent. Mag. vol. 49. 



f speed's Chronicle, i. 1:07. According to the account left 

 us by Rowlands, I,.iicius was cnuvertcd to the Chriftian faith 

 from, the preaching of Timothy* the ion of Claudia Ruffina» 

 a Britifh female of diftinCtion, who had been a difciple of St. 

 P;u\h Mona Antiqna, 178, 



^ 2 it 



