which they are regarded, than for their beauty. Like the cypress, the arbor vitæ, and other ever-greens, the hardy yew-tree has been regarded as an unfading emblem of immortality; and from its dark and gloomy appearance, it has been considered, also, an emblem of mourning, from the earliest ages of antiquity. The Greeks adopted the idea from the Egyptians, the Romans from the Greeks, and the Britons from the Romans. From long habits of association, the yew-tree has acquired, as it were, a sacred character, and is now considered as one of the best and most appropriate ornaments of consecrated ground.

"Dark tree, still sad, when others' grief is fled,
The only constant mourner o'er the dead."

Had they been planted, as many suppose, to supply our ancestors with weapons of war, many early statutes, for their preservation, would have been found in the ancient records of our country; but it appears from the statutes of Edward the Fourth, requiring that four bow

staves should be imported with each ton of merchandize, that our ancestors, so famous for their skill in handling the bow, had recourse to foreign wood as superior to their own.

The weeping willow has been constantly employed as an emblem of grief. It is planted over tombs in many countries besides our own, and from its gracefully drooping foliage, it might almost be supposed to be weeping over the monument which it adorns. Of this beautiful—sepulchral—and, I had almost said, affecting tree, one of the largest in this, or, perhaps, in any other country, is "The Abbot's Willow," at Bury St. Edmunds. This tree is 95 feet in height, 18 feet in circumference, covers an area of 204 feet, and contains 440 feet of solid timber.

Whether the Jews planted trees about their sepulchres, does not appear; but it is most probable that they did. We read of sepulchres in their gardens; for "Manasseh was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden

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of Uzza;" and Amon, his son, was buried in his sepulchre, in the same garden. (2 Kings xxi. 18-26.) Of the sepulchre which belonged to "Joseph of Arimathea," we are told that it was "hewn out of a rock," and situated in a garden :" "Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore, because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand:" (John xix. 41, 42.) the gardens, and burying places of the Jews,

being without their cities.

tion is made of gardens,

Before any men

except the garden

of Eden, we find in Scripture this early and simple record of the burial of Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, that she "died, and was buried beneath Bethel, under an oak :" and we know that this aged domestic did not die unlamented, for "the name of the oak under which she was buried, was called Allon-bachuth (Gen. xxxv. 8.) the oak of weeping." And when

"valiant men" had rescued "the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons," their remains were "buried under a tree," (1 Sam. xxxi. 13.) which served for a memorial, and as such it seems to have been recorded. It is not uncommon in our day, for persons to be interred, at their request, under some particular tree; and many persons have planted trees for the express purpose of being buried under their silent shade, or of denoting the spot where they particularly wished to be interred. Such a tree now stands in Wolvey Churchyard, Warwickshire, over the remains of William Hollifear, the late pious Vicar of that Parish.

It was the custom of the Jews, as it was of the Greeks and Romans, to bury their dead without the walls of their cities, a practice which still prevails in the East, and it is one which is becoming more general in our own country. There are now many cemetries so situated, that we may well exclaim,

"Far from the cities ceaseless hum,

Oh! hither let my relics come,
And let the melancholy yew

Stand near my grave, for ever true,
And exclude the sun's bright ray,
As here a visitant too gay."

As the custom amongst Eastern nations, of burying without the walls, was not often departed from, it became a mark of distinguished honour to be buried within the city. Hence it is recorded, that when "David slept with his fathers, he was buried in the city of David." (1 Kings ii. 10.) This honour was afterwards conferred, not only on most of the pious kings of Judah, but also on Jehoiada the priest, of whom it is written, that " they buried him in the city of David, among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both towards God, and towards his house." (2 Chron. xxiii. 16.) In our own country, for a private individual to have a public funeral, and to be buried among our kings in Westminster Abbey, is an honour simi