YEW TREE. 



399 



Our forefathers,'" says Martyn, " were particularly 

 careful to preserve this funereal tree, whose branches it 

 was usual to carry in solemn procession to the grave, and 

 afterwards to deposit therein under the bodies of their 

 departed friends. Oui' learned Ray says, that our an- 

 cestors planted the Yew in churchyards, because it was 

 an evergreen tree, as a symbol of that immortality which 

 they hoped and expected for the persons there deposited. 

 For the same reason this and other evergreen trees are 

 even yet carried in funerals, and thrown into the grave 

 with the body ; in some parts of England, and in Wales, 

 planted with flowers upon the grave itself*." 



Sir Thomas Bro^vne observes, that the Christian custom 

 of decking the coffin with bay is an elegant emblem, be- 

 cause this tree, when apparently dead, has often been 

 known to revive from the root, and to resume its wonted 

 verdure. 



From a passage in Shakespeare we might suppose that 

 sprigs of Yew were put within the coffin also. 



" My shroud of white, stuck all with yew 

 O prepare it !" 



Blair says, addressing himself to the grave, 



" Well do I know thee hy thy trusty yew. 

 Cheerless, unsocial plant, that loves to dwell 

 'Midst skulls and coffins, epitaphs and wornn.s; 

 Where light-heeled ghosts, and visionary shades. 

 Beneath the wan cold moon, (so fame reports), 

 Embody 'd, thick, perform their mystic rounds. 

 No other merriment, dull tree, is thine." 



" The yew, which, in the place of sculptured stone, 

 Marks out the resting-place of men unknown." 



Churchill. 



* Martyn's Miller's Dictionary. 



