CHAPTER VII 



Why planted in churchyards Druidical, Roman, and Christian 

 customs Early English writers Funeral customs Symbolism 

 Shelter of buildings For providing bow-wood Hansard's 

 objections Planted in churchyards in Germany and Normandy. 



THE custom of planting yew in churchyards is a 

 very old one, as is proved by a statement of 

 Giraldus Cambrensis, who visited Ireland in 

 A.D. 1184, and observed it in cemeteries and holy 

 places : 



' Prae terris autem omnibus quas intravimus, 

 longe copiosus amaro hie succo taxus abundat, 

 maxime vero in Coemiteriis antiquis, locisque 

 sacris sanctorum virorum manibus olim plantatas 

 (al. plantatis), ad decorem et ornamentum quern 

 addere poterant, arborum istarum copiam videas.' 1 



There are various reasons suggested to account 

 for the frequent occurrence of yew-trees in church- 

 yards and in the immediate vicinity of consecrated 

 buildings, some of them having a show of reason. 

 It may be that the statement in Ossian 2 is true, 

 that ' The yew was a funereal tree, the companion 

 of the grave among the Celtic tribes. Here rests 



1 Topog. Hibern., dist. iii. cap. x. Ed. J. E. Dimock ; London, 1867. 



2 Vol. i. , 8th ed. p. 240. 



