THE ROMANCE OF OUR TREES 



cogent reason for planting Yew trees in churchyards 

 was the necessity for providing a supply of bow- 

 staves for bow-men. 



In English history we find many enactments both 

 for planting and protecting Yew trees. Thus there 

 was ordered in the reign of Richard III, 1483, a 

 general planting of these trees for the use of arch- 

 ers. And in the reign of Queen Elizabeth it was en- 

 joined that Yew trees should be planted to insure 

 their cultivation and protection and partly to secure 

 their leaves from doing injury to cattle. With all 

 the efforts the supply was not equal to the wants of 

 the villagers, and there was an enactment put in 

 force providing for a certain number of bow-staves 

 to be imported with every butt of wine from Venice 

 and elsewhere. In Italy, Normandy, and Picardy 

 and other parts of Europe similar laws were in force. 

 Without pursuing this further, certain it is that, no 

 matter what caused their planting, venerable Yew 

 trees are the pride and glory of many old church- 

 yards in western Europe. 



In ornamental gardening the English Yew was 

 employed as early as the Tudor times to form hedges, 

 and was pleached and clipped into the forms of 

 grotesque beasts, birds, cones, pyramids, and other 

 fantastic shapes. During the 17th century the taste 

 for this kind of art increased and in the time of Wil- 

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