Of the modern pictorial editions of the Book of Common Prayer may be mentioned that of Charles Knight "illustrated by nearly seven hundred beautiful woodcuts by Jackson, from drawings by Harvey, and six illuminated titles; with Explanatory Notes by the Rev. H. Stebbing," royal 8vo., London, 1838; reprinted in 1846. That of Murray, "illuminated by Owen Jones, and illustrated with engravings from the works of the great masters," royal 8vo., London, 1845; reprinted in 1850 in med. 8vo. That of Whittaker in 12mo. and 8vo., "with notes and illuminations." The last, and by far the best, pictorial edition is that of J. H. Parker of Oxford, "with fifty illustrations; selected from the finest examples of the early Italian and modern German schools, by the Rev. H. J. Rose and Rev. J. W. Burgon."
Jarltzberg.
YEW-TREES IN CHURCHYARDS.
(Vol. viii., p. 346.)
This has long been to me a vexed question, and I fear that none of your correspondents have given a satisfactory answer.
I have seen in London sprigs of yew and palm willow offered for sale before Palm Sunday. At this period they may, I think, be always found in Covent Garden Market. I saw them last year also in the greengrocers' shops at Brighton. To me these are evident traces of an old custom of using the yew as well as the willow. The origin is to be found in the Jewish custom of carrying "branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows from the brook" (Leviticus xxiii. 39, 40.).
Wordsworth alludes to this in his sonnet on seeing a procession at Chamouny:
"The Hebrews thus carrying in joyful state
Thick boughs of palm and willows from the brook,