ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
33S 
we cannot by any means assent, because, among the number of 
cattle that we have known fall victims to this deadly food, not 
one has been found, when it was opened, but had a lump of 
green yew in its paunch. True it is, that yew-trees stand for 
twenty years or more in a field, and no bad consequences ensue : 
but at some time or other cattle, either from wantonness when 
full, or from hunger when empty, (from both which circum- 
stances we have seen them perish) will be meddling, to their 
certain destruction ; the yew seems to be a very improper tree 
for a pasture-field. 
Antiquaries seem much at a loss to determine at what period 
this tree first obtained a place in church-yards. A statute passed 
A. D. 1307 and 35 Edward I. the title of which is " Ne rector 
arbores in cemeterio prosternat." Now if it is recollected that 
we seldom see any other very large or ancient tree in a church- 
yard but yews, this statute must have principally related to this 
species of tree ; and consequently their being planted in church- 
yards is of much more ancient date than the year 1307. 
As to the use of these trees, possibly the more respectable 
parishioners were buried under their shade before the improper 
custom was introduced of burying within the body of the church, 
where the living are to assemble. Deborah, Rebekah's nurse,* 
was buried under an oak ; the most honourable place of inter- 
ment probably next to the cave of Machpelah,f which seems to 
have been appropriated to the remains of the patriarchal family 
alone. 
The further 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 
church-yards 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 church-yard almost has its tree, 
and some two ; but in the north, we understand, few are to be 
found.t 
• Gen. XXXV. S. t Gen. xxiii. 9. 
t This is perfectly correct. Few yew-trees are to be found in the church-yards of the northeru 
counties. The place of the yew is there supplied by the ash, the lime, and the horse-chestnut. 
Yew-trees, however, and some of them of e^^traordinary size, are frequently to be met with in 
tne c«uri-yards and gardens attached to the feudal castles of the north of England. — D. 
