OF SELBORNE. 533 



spectable parishioners were buried under their shade 

 before the improper custom was introduced of burying 

 within the body of the church, where the living are to 

 assemble. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse 1 , was buried 

 under an oak ; the most honourable place of interment 

 probably next to the cave of Machpelah 2 , which seems 

 to have been appropriated to the remains of the patri- 

 archal family alone. 



The farther use of yew trees might be as a screen to 

 churches, by their thick foliage, from the violence of 

 winds; perhaps also for the purpose of archery, the 

 best long bows being made of that material: and we 

 do not hear that they are planted in the churchyards of 

 other parts of Europe, where long bows were not so 

 much in use. They might also be placed as a shelter 

 to the congregation assembling before the church doors 

 were opened, and as an emblem of mortality by their 

 funereal appearance 3 . In the south of England every 

 churchyard almost has its tree, and some two ; but in 

 the north, we understand, few are to be found. 



The idea of R. C. that the yew tree afforded its 

 branches instead of palms for the processions on Palm 

 Sunday, is a good one, and deserves attention. See 

 Gent. Mag. vol. i. p. 128. 



LETTER VI. 



THE living of Selborne was a very small vicarage ; but, 

 being in the patronage of Magdalen College, in the 

 university of Oxford, that society endowed it with the 

 great tithes of Selborne, more than a century ago : and 

 since the year 1758 again with the great tithes of Oak- 

 hanger, called Bene's Parsonage : so that, together, it is 



1 Gen. xxxv. 8. a Gen. xxiii. 9. 



3 Or rather, perhaps, as an emblem of immortality by their evergreen 

 foliage : whence, also, most probably, the derivation of their name ; yew, 

 q. d. ewigj everlasting. E. T. B. 



