YEW-TREE. 349 s 



yards of East Kent yew-trees are even now called palms. 

 Small branches were, likewise, wont to be borne at funeral 

 solemnities, and cast into the grave, yet few among the 

 villagers inter their dead beneath our shade. They prefer 

 that the sun should shine brightly on the green turf that 

 covers them, and daisies be free to open their pink-tinted 

 flowers among the grass. And why? because it is con- 

 jectured that bodies interred beneath the shade of trees 

 return to their pristine dust much sooner than when de- 

 posited in the open ground. This may in some degree be 

 accounted for, by the continued dripping of boughs in 

 rain, and by the comparative absence of sun and air. But 

 a mournful poet has thought differently, and thus apostro- 

 phizes his favourite tree : 



" The funeral yew, the funeral yew ! 



How many a fond and tearful eye 

 Hath hither turned its pensive view, 



And through this dark leaf sought the sky ! 

 How many a light and heauteous form, 



Committed to its guardian trust, 



