Druidical Customs 97 



their dust, CuthulHn ! These lonely yews sprang 

 from their tomb and shaded them from the storm ' ; 

 but there is no reliable evidence of the aboriginal 

 tribes regarding the yew with any special venera- 

 tion, and there does not appear to be any authentic 

 instance of their planting it near the sacred circles. 

 Several writers have entered into this question, and 

 presume that the yew was one of those evergreens 

 which, from its shade and shelter, was especially 

 cultivated by the Druids in their sacred groves and 

 around their sacrificial circles, ignoring the fact that 

 these were always placed in situations whence the 

 rising and setting of the sun, over some prominent 

 feature of the landscape, could be observed at the 

 time of sacrifice ; that when Christianity superseded 

 Druidism the same places were chosen as the sites 

 of the new worship ; and that in this manner arose 

 the association of the yew-tree with our churches 

 and churchyards. This may be so, but I have been 

 unable to discover a sinole instance of a Druidical 

 stone being associated with a church. It may also 

 be true, as surmised by some, that it was used by 

 the early Roman invaders in their funeral rites in 

 lieu of their accustomed cypress and pine/ Of 

 Picea, Pliny says : ' funebri indicio ad fores posita.' 

 Sir Thomas Browne seems to have first suggested 

 that as their ' funeral pyre consisted of sweet fuel, 

 cypress, fir, larix, yew, and trees perpetually ver- 



^ Hydriopathia, ch. iv. 

 G 



