THE COMMON YEW 



edicts and Acts of Parliament which also regulated 

 their price, making provision for their importation 

 and forbidding their exportation. From the time 

 of Edward IV to quite a late period in the reign of 

 Elizabeth, these Acts continued in force, being 

 renewed by each successive sovereign, and it was 

 not until the latter reign, when firearms came into 

 more general use, that less consideration was paid 

 to the long-bow. A petition from the Commons to 

 Edward IV states that "such bow-stafTes as be 

 brought within this Realm, be set now to outrage- 

 ous prises," and prays that "every tun-tight of 

 merchandise as shall be conveyed in every Carik, 

 Calec, or shipp, iiii bowestaffes be brought, upon 

 pain of forfeiture to your Highness, for lacke of 

 bringing every such bowestaff vi-s. viii-d." The 

 last statute issued with regard to the use of bows is 

 the 13th Elizabeth (cap. XIV) which orders that 

 bow-staves shall be imported into England from the 

 Hanse towns and other places. Through Saxon- 

 Norman-Plantagenet to late Tudor times the yew- 

 bow played a famous part in the national history of 

 England, and no English tree has gathered around 

 itself so much historic, poetic, and legendary lore 

 as the Yew. 



The association of the Yew-tree with early English 

 history is varied and important. Venerable trees 



