86 Origin of the frequent Occurrence 



the durability of its wood, at once an emblem and a specimen 

 of immortality, it would be employed by our pagan ancestors, 

 on their first arrival here, as the best substitute for the cypress, 

 to deck the graves of the dead, and for other sacred purposes.* 

 As it is the policy of innovators in religion to avoid unne- 

 cessary interference with matters not essential, these, with 

 many other customs of heathen origin, would be retained and 

 engrafted on Christianity on its first introduction. It would 

 indeed be surprising, if one so innocent and so congenial to 

 their best feelings were not allowed, as a tribute to departed 

 worth or friendship, under that new and purer system, which 

 confirmed to them the cheering prospect of a reunion after 

 death with those who had shared their pleasures and affections 

 here. History and tradition concur in telling us that this was 

 the case, and that the yew was also closely connected in the 

 superstitions of our simple forefathers with ghosts and fairies. 

 In a very ancient Welsh bard, we are told of two churches 

 eminent for their prodigious yew trees : — 



" Bangor Esgor, a Bangeibyr Henllan 

 Yssid er clodvan er clyd Ywyz ;" 



which Dr. Owen Pugh thus translates : — " The Minster of 

 Esgor, and that of Henllan, of celebrity for sheltering yews." 

 Henllan signifies an old grove ; thus proving that its church 

 stood where druid worship had been performed. Can we, 

 then, longer doubt the real origin of planting it in our church- 

 yards ? And, if it be said that this, its usual, though not 

 natural, situation rather proves the venerable trees we find 

 there not to be older, at most, than the introduction of Chris- 

 tianity, I reply, that our earliest Christian churches were 

 generally erected on the site of a previous heathen temple, 

 and that at least one motive for placing them there would be 

 their proximity to trees so sacred, already venerable for size, 

 and indispensable in their religious rites. That these rites 

 were performed, and altars erected, in groves, from the highest 

 antiquity, we know from the Pentateuch. The devotions and 

 sacrifices of Baal among the Moabites, and the idolatrous 

 rites of the Canaanites and other gentile tribes, were performed 

 in groves and high places. The druids chose for their places 

 of worship the tops of wooded hills, where, as they allowed 

 no covered temples, they cleared out a circular space, and 

 erected their circles of stone.f Many of the first Christian 



* I am told that in some parts of Hampshire it is still the custom to 

 sponge the bodies of the dead with an infusion of yew leaves, under the idea 

 that it retards or prevents putrefaction. 



f It worthy of remark, that many of the remote Welsh churches are 

 on little eminences among the wooded hills. Mr. Rootsey of Bristol sug- 



