Note 1083 — Chapter IX · THE CHURCHYARD YEW

I have not yet observed a yew growing on a British burial mound, but Gen. A. Pitt-Rivers, in describing a British barrow which he opened on Winkelbury Hill, seems to supply an instance. He states that he found no relics within the mound, and that this absence was probably due to a dead yew, locally called a “scrag,” which he removed. Gen. Pitt-Rivers calls the yew an “insertion,” but was the tree “inserted” alive or dead? A dead yew would scarcely work much havoc. He continues—and the addition is noteworthy—“I afterwards learnt that the people of the neighbourhood attached some interest to it, and it has since been replaced by Sir Thomas Grove.” (Excav. in Cranborne Chase, II. 1888, p. 258.) Cf. Folk-Lore, XIII. p. 96; Prof. H. Conwenz, in Brit. Assoc. Report, 1901, p. 839.