OF FOREST-TREES. 267 



she did so, and died also" ! Whether all this be but a dream, I cannot CH.XXr. 

 tell, but it was haply from those iugubrous effects that garlands of Taxus 

 were usually worn at funerals, as Statius implies in Epicedium Vernse : 

 However, to prevent all funest accidents, I commend the tree only for 

 the usefulness of the timber, and hortulan ornament. That we find 

 it so universally planted in our church-yards, was, doubtless, from its 

 being thought a symbol of immortality, the tree being so lasting, and 

 always green. Our bee-masters banish it from about their apiaries. 



One thing more, whilst I am speaking of this tree : It reminds me of that 

 very odd story I find related by Mr. Camden, of a certain amorous clergy- 

 man, that falling in love with a pretty maid who refused his addresses, 

 cut off her head ; which being hung upon a Yew-tree till it was rotten, 

 the tree was reputed so sacred, not only whilst the virgin's head hung 



in this kingdom. There are six remarkable trees of this sort now growing on the hill 



above Fountain's Abbey, near Ripon, which, in 1770, measured in circumference as 

 below : 



Feet. Inch. Feet. Inch, 



1 13 0 



2 18 0 



3 19 0 



4 21 0 



5 25 0 



6 26 6 



Under these very trees a number of monks resided, until they built the Monastery of 

 Fountains in 1133, having withdrawn themselves from the Benedictine Monastery of 

 St. Mary in York. 



The best reason that can be given why the Yew was planted in church-yards, is, that 

 branches of it were often carried in procession, on Palm Sunday, instead of the Palm. The 

 following extract from Caxton's DirectioH for keeping feasts all the year, is decisive on this 

 custom. In the lecture for Palm Sunday, he says, " Wherefore Holy Chirch this day 

 makyth solemn processyon, in mind of the processyon that Cryst made this day. But for 

 encheson that we have none Olyve that bereth grene leef, algate therefore we take Ewe 

 instefe of Palm and Olyve, and beren about in processyon, and so is thys day called Palm 

 Sonday." As a confii'mation of this fact, the Yew-trees in fhe church-yards of East Kent are 

 at this day called Palms. 



My most excellent and learned friend Dr. Percival of Manchester, in his " Medical 

 and Philosophical Essays," has recorded a melancholy proof of the poisonous quality of Yew 

 leaves. " On Friday, March 25, 1774, three children of James Buckley, a labouring man 

 at Longsight, near Manchester, were killed by taking a small quantity of the fresh leaves 

 of the Yew-tree, or Taxus Officinalis of Caspar Bauhine. The oldest child was five, the 

 second four, and the youngest three yea^s of age : They were all supposed to be infected 

 with the worms, and this poison was given them by the recommendation of some ignorant 



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