CHURCHYARD YEWS 253 



if they claimed originality in these practices, took 

 too much upon themselves, but have we not ever 

 been educated up to the idea, have we not always 

 been told — 



That in matters of Commerce the fault of the Dutch 

 Is in giving too little, and asking too much ? 



In this instance it looks a little as if the Dutch had 

 appropriated an inventor's credit for methods that 

 were recognized and noted in the Virgilian days, and 

 labelled them as home-made or Hollands. Appear- 

 ances are, at any rate, against them. 



The Yew is a memento niori symbol of many a 

 landscape distance, and the uncrowned king among 

 trees of the village churchyards wherein '* the rude 

 forefathers of the hamlet sleep." It stands out as 

 silent and ever-present a witness as the gravestone 

 itself, testifying mutely to undying facts, and pointing 

 to one great and universal epitaph for all departed 

 humanity : 



For thus our fathers testified 



That he might read who ran. 

 The emptiness of human pride, 



The nothingness of man. 



By many a villager, too, it is regarded as an old 

 friend and landmark, to be recalled when away in 

 distant lands, and to be greeted as such on a return 

 home. It has been associated by many a wanderer 

 with childish scenes, and perhaps with memories 

 sadder. It has been at times accounted murky, 

 melancholy, and mournful ; it has been described as 

 sable, sombre, and gloomy in many a book of prose 

 and poetry, 3'et even in them it is allowed that it 

 has contributed, by its venerable appearance and 

 appropriate colouring, a certain undefined pleasing 

 melancholy to scenes not easily forgotten. 



