tfHE COMMON YEW. 299 



In a much wider bearing the Yew played a prominent part in our 

 early history, as supplying the material of which the bows of the 

 archers were made, and on that account was the subject of many 

 statutes of our early kings, and afterwards of Parliament, which made 

 provisions for the preservation and planting of Yews, and for the 

 supply of Yew wood for bows, for prohibiting the exportation of Yew 

 timber, regulating the import of it, &c. Every student of English 

 History can point to great events in which the Yew bow played a 

 foremost part. It was essentially the Saxon weapon both for warfare 

 and the chase ; and during the earlier part of the Norman supremacy 

 was often used with deadly effect by the oppressed natives to rid 

 themselves of their tyrannical masters. Deeds of daring were per- 

 formed, attesting the extraordinary prowess and skill of the Saxon 

 archers ; deeds that were long kept in remembrance by tradition, 

 celebrated in song and verse, or preserved in legends which afterwards 

 supplied subjects for modern romance.* The Yew bow was fatal to 

 several English Kings, to Harold at Hastings, to William Eufus in the 

 New Eorest, and to Eichard Cceur de Lion at Chaloux, in France. 

 It was the skill of the English archers that enabled Henry II. to 

 gain a footing in Ireland, and the name of Strongbow, borne by the 

 leader of the expedition, attests the high repute in which the weapon 

 was held. Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt were won chiefly by - the 

 Yew bow j it was the most popular weapon through the long civil 

 strife between the rival houses of York and Lancaster ; and both in 

 warfare as well as in the chase, it was held in estimation long after 

 the invention of gunpowder had prepared the way to a complete change 

 in the system and science of war. 



The association of the Yew with gardening in England began early 

 in the sixteenth century. It was brought into prominent notice 

 towards the end of the century by Evelyn, who claims the " merit " 

 of being the first to introduce the fashion of clipping it into artificial 

 shapes, which became general during the next century. It was first 

 used in the formation of hedges for purposes of utility, but the dense 

 growth it assumes when pruned, its . apparently unlimited duration, and the 

 readiness with which it may be cut into many shapes without imparing 

 its vitality, soon led to its being extensively used in topiary work, 

 which had been previously confined chiefly to the box and juniper. The 

 dark dense foliage of the Yew, and its more robust and taller growth 

 than the box or juniper, offered facilities for the introduction into 

 gardens, by artificial means, of many varieties of form, and the fashion 

 of clipping Yews into geometric figures, and also into the figures of 

 birds, beasts, and even the human shape, became for a time a very 

 prevalent practice, which reached its height towards the close of the 



* Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, Tales of Robin Sood, &c. See, also, the learned and eloquent 

 Thiery in his ConquSte de VAngleterre pwr lea Norrmndst 



