172 ENGLISH MEDIAEVAL ARCHITECTURE. 



<sion. The lych gate (where the bodies of the 

 deceased were first received preparatory to interment) 

 was also a provision of our forefathers, but this county 

 possesses but few ancient examples. Being in the 

 company of naturalists, I ought not to omit to mention 

 the almost invariable custom of the old builders placing 

 a yew tree (emblem of eternity) on the site of their 

 burial places. As with the churchyard cross, so with 

 the yew its knarled and hollowed trunk, its hard and 

 closely-grown branches, with its evergreen foliage, always 

 appears in the midst of^the ancient place of sepulture 

 of our forefathers. In some places it is of prodigious 

 size. It was only the other day that the vicar of one of 

 our country parishes pointed to the hollow of an 

 immense trunk of a yew on the borders of his church- 

 yard, saying to me that an old villager used to .stable 

 his donkey within it. Some of these trees must be 

 centuries old, and if any naturalist present could dis- 

 cover a method of correctly estimating their ages at 

 varied growths he would help towards the settlement of 

 many vexed antiquarian que>ti<>ii>. I i instance, if any 

 one could state the precise age of the yews in Rush ton 

 churchyard, perhaps a more correct history of that 

 church would be arrived at. 



The plan of the parish church was of course enlarged 

 upon in that of the abbey and cathedral church, but of 

 these I do not propose to speak, excepting to remark that 

 in them the chancel became the choir, and there were 

 usually added a Lady Chapel at the east end, as at 

 Croxden and Lichfield, and that chapter house, cloisters, 

 and domestic offices were also added. At Lichfield, it 

 will be remembered, there are no cloisters, but the 



