422 
ANTIQUITIES 
The farther use of yew trees might be as a screen to 
churches, by their thick foliage, from the violence of winds; 
perhaps also for the purpose of archery, the best long bows 
being made of that material ; and we do not hear that they 
are planted in the churchyards of other parts of Europe, 
where long bows were not so much in use. They might 
also be placed as a shelter to the congregation assembling 
before the church doors were opened, and as an emblem of 
mortality by their funereal appearance/ In the south of 
England every churchyard almost has its tree, and some 
two ; but in the north, we understand, few are to be found.'^ 
The idea of R. C. that the yew tree afforded its branches 
instead of palms for the processions on Palm Sunday, is a 
good one, and deserves attention. — See Gent. Mag, vol. i. 
p. 128. 
LETTER YL 
HE living of Selborne was a very small vicar- 
age; but, being in the patronage of Magdalen 
College, in the university of Oxford, that 
society endowed it with the great tithes of 
Selborne, more than a century ago, and 
since the year 1758 again with the great tithes of Oak- 
hanger, called Bene's Parsonage: so that, together, it is 
become a respectable piece of preferment, to which one of 
the fellows is always presented. The vicar holds the great 
tithes, by lease, under the college. The great disadvan- 
tage of this living is, that it has not one foot of glebe near 
home.^ 
^ Or perhaps of immortality by their evergreen foliage: whence, 
probably, the derivation of the name i/ew, q. d. ewig, everlasting. — Ed. 
2 In the northern churchyards the place of the yew is supplied by 
the ash, lime, and horse-chestnut. Yew trees, however, and some of 
them of large size, are frequently to be met with in the courtyards and 
gardens of ancient mansions in the north of England. — Ed. 
' At Bene's. or Bin's parsonage there is a house and stout bam, and 
