THE YEW. 67 



receptacle is succulent and bright red. That famous fruit of Australia 

 which is described by lovers of the marvellous and by the ignorant as 

 "a cherry with its stone upon the outside," is very nearly the same 

 thing as the yew-tree berry, only produced by a different tree. Botanists 

 call it Exocarpus. 



The slow growth of the yew, being a part of its life-history, belongs, 

 like the flowers, to the botanical idea of the plant. To this is chiefly 

 owing the hardness and the smoothness of the wood, which for delicacy 

 and beauty of colouring is also excelled by few, the box alone, perhaps, 

 presenting a surface of greater evenness and polish. Yew is the most 

 esteemed of all our native woods for high-class turnery-work and for 

 inlaying. It has the recommendation also of being rarely or never 

 attacked by insects, guarded, as it were, like sandal-wood, by some 

 native objectionableness. Sections, both horizontal and vertical, con- 

 stitute truly beautiful objects for the parlour-museum, and form an 

 excellent nucleus for a collection of such things. When so much time 

 is devoted to " scrap-book" making and to stamp-collecting, useful up 

 to a certain point as such pastimes may be, it seems a pity that as 

 much leisure and activity should not be given to collections of wood- 

 sections, which endure for ever, are beautiful and varied as seashells, 

 and cost little more than the trouble of polishing. In bygone times 

 the wood of the yew-tree was famous among archers, and it is curious 

 to note that no less than three kings of this country have lost their lives 

 through its instrumentality. First, the ill-fated Harold, at the battle 

 of Hastings ; then, William Rufus, in the New Forest ; thirdly, Richard 

 Coaur de Lion, at Limoges. The battles of Cregy, Poictiers, and Agin- 

 court, were won through the energy of the yew-tree bowmen, and per- 

 haps the milder archery of the present day would be more successful 

 were the competitors to fall back upon the ancient material of their 

 thrice-ancient instrument. The rings indicating age are in general 

 very plainly seen in the yew, and form a striking illustration of the 

 marvellous antiquity the tree is witness to. We often hear of " railway - 

 time" and of " sidereal time;" the yew-tree helps to enforce upon us 

 the grandeur of the idea of "tree-time." The vast age attained by 

 individuals is accompanied, as would be looked for, by commensurate 

 bulk and girth. In the graveyard attached to Bucklaw church, about a 

 mile from Dover, there is, or was until recently, a yew with a trunk of 

 no less than 24 feet in circumference. In Tisbury churchyard, Dorset- 

 shire, there is another, now quite hollow, with an entrance gate on one 

 side, and measuring 37 feet in circumference ; while in the churchyard 



