hods for preserving these valuable
specimens of early art.

[Illustration: ST. PETER, KINGSTON LISLE]

In the churchyard stands the old weather-beaten yew tree, looking like a
sentinel keeping watch over the graves of our forefathers. Some of these
trees are remarkable for their age; the yews at Fountains Abbey, in
Yorkshire, were probably in a flourishing condition so long ago as the
year 1132, and some are older still. Why they were planted in churchyards
it is difficult to ascertain. It has been conjectured that they were
planted in so secure a spot in order that the men might provide themselves
with bows, as all the bows used by the English, with which they did such
execution against their enemies, were made of yew. Others contend that its
green boughs were used instead of palms on Palm Sunday, or for funerals.
But I think that they were regarded with veneration by our forefathers
when they were still heathen, and that some religious symbolism--such as
of immortality--attached to them; and that when the Christian teachers
came they made use of this religious sentiment of the people, planted the
Christian cross by the side of the yew, and under its shade preached
lessons of true immortality, of which the heathen ideals were only corrupt
legends and vain dreams.

At the entrance of the churchyard there is often a lich-gate, _i.e._ a
corpse-gate, where the body may rest while the funeral procession is
formed. _Lych_ is the Saxon word for a dead body, from which Lich-field,
"the field of dead bodies," is derived. Bray, in Berkshire, famous for
its time-serving vicar, is also famous for its lich-gate, which has two
rooms over it.

"God's acre" is full of holy associations, where sleep "the rude
forefathers of the hamlet." There stands the village cross where the
preachers stood in Saxon times and converted the people to Christianity,
and there the old sundial on a graceful stone pedestal. Sometimes amid
the memorials of the dead stood the parish stocks. Here in olden days
fairs were held, and often markets every Sunday and holiday, and minstrels
and jugglers thronged; and stringent laws were passed to prevent "improper
and prohibited sports within the churchyard, as, for example, wrestling,
football, handball under penalty of twopence forfeit." Here church ales
were kept with much festivity, dancing, and merry-making; and here
sometimes doles were distributed on the tombstones of parochial
benefactors, and even bread