T. baccata 



Milton in the following lines appears to be 

 describing the " Yew," though he speaks of it as 

 Palm- 



" Cedar and Pine and Fir and branching Palm, 

 A Sylvan scene ! and as the ranks ascend, 

 Shade above shade, a woody theatre 

 Of stateliest view. 



There will I build him 



A monument, and plant it round with shade 



Of Laurel evergreen and branching Palm. 



He many a walk traversed 



Of stateliest covert, Cedar, Pine, or Palm." 



Previous to the Christian era historians tell us 

 that the Yew was looked on as a sacred tree, 

 and that the vicinity of a Yew, or a group of 

 Yews, was often a place of heathen worship. 

 The majority of the oldest Yews in Britain are 

 to be found in churchyards, and the generally 

 accepted opinion prevails that these Yews were 

 not planted as adjuncts to the churchyard, but 

 that the churches were built near the Yews, 

 which were already of mature years. The pro- 

 bability is that these old Yews were looked on 

 as sacred trees in druidical times, and mission- 

 aries would so far respect the feelings of their 

 converts as to erect their religious houses on, 

 or as near as possible to, sites that had long 

 been held sacred. In some old books the state- 

 ment is made, that " when Augustine was sent 



161 



