CONIFER 2. 281 
that the yew was also closely connected, in the superstitions of our simple forefathers, 
with ghosts and fairies. In the works of a very ancient Welsh bard we are told of 
two churches renowned for their prodigious yew trees, “the minster of Esgor and 
that of Heillan, of celebrity for sheltering yews.” Hetillan 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 yew trees in our churchyards? If 
‘it be said that this usual though not natural situation of the yew tree proves the 
venerable specimens which we find in churchyards not to be older than the introduc- 
tion of Christianity, it may be replied that our earliest Christian churches were gene- 
rally erected on the site of a heathen temple, and that at least one motive for placing 
churches in such situations would be their proximity to trees already sacred, vene- 
rable for size, and indispensable in their religious rites. That these rites were per- 
formed, and altars erected in groves from the remotest antiquity, we know from the 
Pentateuch. The devotions and sacrifices of Baal among the Moabites, and the 
idolatrous rites of the Canaanites and other tribes of Gentiles, 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 an open 
space, and there erected their circles of stone. Many of the remote Welsh churches 
are on little eminences among wooded hills. Mr. Rootsey, of Bristol, has suggested 
“that our words kirk and church might probably have originated in the word cerrig, 
a stone or circle of stones, the first churches having been placed within these circular 
stone enclosures.” The Rey. W. T. Bree suggests, in the “Magazine of Natural 
History,” that churches were built in yew groves, or near large old yew trees, as 
more likely than that the yews were planted after the churches were built. 
The practice of clipping the yew into geometrical forms in gardens was most prevalent 
from the time of Charles I. to the latter end of William III., when it gradually gave 
way. In some of the old college gardens at Oxford, and in some old private gardens in 
various parts of England, these curious figures, niches, arcades, or pilasters may still 
be seen. It may be mentioned as a historical fact that De Candolle adopted the yew 
tree as a sort of standard by which to determine the age of trees generally from the 
number of layers of wood in their trunks. The reasons why he appears to have pre- 
ferred the yew are, that of this tree there are a greater number of authentic records 
of the age of individual specimens than of most other trees, and because the wood is 
of slower growth and greater durability than that of any other European tree. The 
old name applied to those who carried arms, and were the trusty “ yeomen” of olden 
times, seems to have been derived from the “ Engh” or “ Yew,” the archers of the 
period carrying bows of yew. 
The yew has afforded numerous images to poets from the time of Homer, who speaks 
of the ancient inhabitants of Crete as being “ dreadful with the bended yew.” Virgil 
notices the elasticity of the yew in the “ Mneid ” :— 
“‘ This foul reproach Acanius could not bear 
With patience, or a vow’d revenge forbear. 
At the full stretch of both his hands he drew, 
And almost join’d the horns of the tough yew.” 
Herrick alludes to the presence of the yew in funeral obsequies in his address to the 
yew and the cypress :— 
* Both of you have 
Relation to the grave; is 
VOL. VIII. 00 
