ON THE OLD AND REMARKABLE YEW TREES IN SCOTLAND. 381 



make the spot hallowed ground, but to be selected as the site for 

 a primitive church, a building or structure of a more permanent 

 })ature, or enduring monument, to give expression by its visible 

 presence of the feelings, the sentiments, and the hopes of our 

 early religion. No doubt the known antiquity of many yew trees 

 in these early times, standing in burial-places or places of worship 

 or sacrifice, strengthened those hallowed associations which took 

 their rise j^robably at an epoch anterior to the introduction of 

 Christianity into Britain. 



Amongst the ancient yews still existing associated with sacred 

 edifices, the following occur to us to mention. Details of their 

 dimensions and condition at the present day will be found in our 

 Tabulated Appendix. The Fortingal yew in Glenlyon, Perthshire, 

 stands near the gateway leading to an old churcliyard. The 

 Forgan yew trees (5) in Fife, are beside the ruins of flie old parish 

 church of Forgan. The old yew tree at the Colquhouns' burying- 

 ground, is beside a ruin on Inch-Lonaig, an island in Loch Lomond. 

 The Dunkeld yews beside the ruins of the cathedral. The old yew 

 tree at Dryburgh Abbey, and others. 



But besides its association with early religious and burying places 

 in our country, the yew has also played a very conspicuous part in 

 our national history. Many venerable and hoary specimens still 

 survive to mark the spots where great events have taken place, and 

 others are connected with the names of historic j)ersonages. A 

 still more prominent role, however, has been played by the yew in 

 our country's early history in supplying the material of which the 

 bow, that national instrument of early warfare, was made. Wo 

 have said that the yew tree is of very slow growth, whence its 

 wood is amongst the hardest, close-grained, durable, tough, and 

 elastic known ; qualities well calculated for use in the making of 

 bows for the chase or for warfare. It hence became widely and 

 generally used in this manufacture, and was formerly what the oak 

 was in more recent times, the basis of the country's strength. 

 Of it the old English yeoman made his bows, which, he proudly 

 vaunted, nobody but an Englishman could bend. The yew, how- 

 ever, was not cultivated only for its toughness and elasticity, but 

 for the durable nature of its timber. It is, to the present day, a 

 common saying among the inhabitants of the New Forest, that a 

 post of yew will outlast a post of iron. The wood being also of a 

 beautiful rich reddish-brown colour, and susceptible of a high 

 polish, was formerly much used for domestic purposes iu the 



