2 Edward VI. The Rhemish translators of the New Testament mention also the bearing of Palms on this day in their country when it was catholic; and Mr. Bourne abovementioned, who wrote about 60 years ago, says, that they now and then on a Palm-Sunday saw the young people carrying branches of Palms in their hands; and an old MS. quoted in 3d Volume of Horda Angel-Cynnan, says, "wherfor holi chirche this daye makyth solempne processyon, in mynde of the processyon that Cryst made this dey; but for enchesen that we hav noone Olyve that bearith greene leves, therefore we taken Palme, and geven insteade of Olyve, and beare it about in processyon, so is this daye called PalmeSonday." From these passages it is evident, that something called a Palm was carried in procession on Palm-Sunday. What the last writer means by our having no Olive that beareth green leaves, I do not so well know; however, what he calls a Palm was substituted. Now it is my idea, that these Palms, so familiarly mentioned, were no other than the branches of yew-trees. Some author I have read makes mention of a few of the true Palm-trees growing at Rome, from which the Pope and a few of the higher Cardinals are supplied with branches on Palm-Sunday; while the rest are forced to be contented with the succedaneum of some other evergreen. Sprigs of box, says the editor of Mr. Bourne, are still used as a substitute for Palms in Roman Catholic countries. With us, in the north, the children go out into the fields, the week before this Sunday, a palmsoning or palmsning, as they call it, and gather the flowering buds of the sallow; because, perhaps, in some of those parts they are the only things at this season in which the power of vegetation can be discovered. And why should not the branches of the yew-tree also be good substitutes, and assume the name of their principals; they are not only always green, but in blossom too, as early as they can be wanted for this ceremony; and being planted near the church, would be always ready at hand. For this purpose (as now for decking the church at Christmas) one or two trees would be fully sufficient, which is the usual number we meet with in one church-yard; and that they actually were made this use of is extremely probable, from those in the

*This custom is not peculiar to the north, being still a common practice in the neighbourhood of London. The young people go a palming; and the. Sallow is sold in London-Streets for the whole week preceding Palm-Sunday.

EDITOR.

church-yards in East Kent (where there are some very large and old) being to this day universally called palms; and if they should go under the same name in other parts, my conjecture would receive a very great additional force.

I wish, Sir, what I have here suggested may attract the attention of some of your correspondents, who may be able to throw more light on the subject,

1779, Dec.

SIR,

I am, &c.

A. B.

YOUR correspondent A. B. has gone deeply into the subject of yew-trees in church-yards, and his essay is both entertaining and instructive. It may be said with propriety, he hath fairly and candidly demolished the two current opinions concerning them, that they were "originally planted there to protect the churches from storms, or to furnish the parishioners with bows." But as it is always easier to pull down than to build, he does not seem to have succeeded so well in his own conjecture upon them, "that their branches were intended to be used on Palm-Sunday," for this plain reason, the bearing of Palms on Palm-Sunday, was an act of joy and ovation in remembrance of our Saviour's triumphant entry into Jerusalem; whereas the yew is not only a tree of baleful influence, whence Statius terms it,

-metuendaque succo

Taxus-*;

but it is too much of a funeral nature, to be made a substitute for the joyful Palm. But you will say, the ill-smelling box is applied in some countries to the same purpose, and is equally funeral, and therefore why not the yew? I answer, whatever may be the custom in foreign countries, box never was used here, that we know of, in the processions on Palm-Sunday, neither does it ever appear in our churchyards, which it certainly would in that case as well as the yew, upon A. B.'s hypothesis; ought not the box, on this supposition, to occur as frequently in church-yards as the yew? This objection is therefore invalid.

* Statius, VI. v. 91. and see Mr. Evelyn, passim.

But what then, you will ask, was the intention of planting yews in church-yards, if their branches were not used on Palm-Sunday? It is with the utmost diffidence, Mr. Urban, that I deliver my opinion on this disputable question; however, sensible as I am of your great indulgence towards all your numerous correspondents, I shall venture to tell you my thoughts. Now I take it, as A. B. does, that yews, specifically were not planted in church-yards, for the purpose of protecting the fabric of the church from storms; though, in the event, they proved subservient to that end. But my conception is, that on the first planting of trees there, whenever that was, for I do not pretend to specify the time, various kinds were introduced, and in some places the yew amongst the rest. Considering the slowness of the growth of this tree, and the immense bulk of some of them, one has reason to think they may be as old as the Norman conquest. Supposing then the yew to be once planted in certain cemeteries, when the statute of 35 Ed. I. A. D. 1307, began to operate, whereby leave was given to fell or cut down trees in church-yards, for building and repairs; the timber trees adapted to that purpose would of course be taken down from time to time; so that the yews at last, and in our days, would be the only trees left standing. These, as unfit for the uses prescribed, would consequently remain, and afterwards as an ever-green, be thought an emblem of the resurrection, and even acquire some degree of regard and veneration.

1780, Feb.

T. Row.

LXXXIX. Curious Specimen of early Printing.

We are happy to communicate to the public the following very curious Letter on a subject in which we are professionally interested, and which, we doubt not, will be agreeable to our learned readers.

Dear Sir,

TO THOMAS ASTLE, Esq.

Jan. 15, 1781.

GIVE me leave to congratulate you on your fortunate acquisition of a block which was used in the very infancy of

printing, when the quotations and necessary explanations were cut in the same piece of wood with the subject represented, before moveable types were invented.

Yours, Sir, is for the second leaf of the "Historia Sancti Johannis Evangelista, ejusque Visiones Apocalypticæ,' generally called "The Apocalypse;" in the upper part of which St. John is represented as being carried before the Præfect, with this inscription; "Trahamus Johannem ad Præfectum qui Ydolorum culturam adnichilavit;" and in the lower, St. John is embarking to be transported to Rome, over which is written, "S. Johannes Romam mittitur, ac Domiciano imperatori crudelissimo Christianorum persecutori præsentatur."

This, M. Maittaire [in his Annales Typographici, p. 20.] imagines to be the oldest of the four books which were the first attempts of the Art of Printing; the second being the "Speculum humanæ Salvationis," illustrated with subjects from the Old and New Testaments, and with the Prologues and Explanations in Latin Rhymes [this is known by the name of "Speculum Salutis," or "La Bible des Pauvres ;"] the third book is of the same cuts, with Dutch Prose; and the fourth the "Ars moriendi," or "Speculum morientium," in which the good and bad Angels are contending for the soul of a dying person.

Palmer, who was himself a printer, gives the first place to the "Ars moriendi," and the second to the "Apocalypse,' [p. 53, 4]; and tells us that its "Paper has the mark of the heifer's head and horns, which is allowed to be the mark in the paper Faust used, whose first essays were from 1440 to 1450."

We have, therefore, no reason to give any credit to those Dutch writers who would compliment their countryman, Laurence Coster, of Haerlem, with the invention of every branch of the art of printing, and say that these books were printed so early as between 1428 and 1435; nor can it be allowed that Coster was either a painter or engraver. [See "Idée generale des Estampes," p. 333.]

M. Chrêtien Frederic Wenzel, Inspector of the Cabinet of Prints and Drawings of the Electorial Gallery at Dresden, who has given us a large volume in octavo, 1771, under the title of Idée generale d'une Collection complette d'Estampes," p. 334, &c. says, that he has found six different editions of the "Historia Sancti Johannis Evangelista, ejusque Visiones Apocalyptica," which were all printed, on one side of the paper only, with such a tool as the makers of

playing cards use; the first of them he mentions consists of 48 blocks, most of which, like yours, is divided into two parts. A complete copy of this edition is in the Imperial Library at Vienna; the ink very pale, and the figures illuminated, as are those of several other copies.

Dr. Askew's copy of this work was bought by Dr. Hunter. [Origin of Printing, by Bowyer and Nichols, 8vo. 1776. p. 175.]

Your print, Sir, belongs to the first edition; for, in the second, the stem of the tree in the upper part is strait, bearing three boughs; and, in the lower, there are five ropes fastened to the mast, instead of four, and the two trees are omitted.

The very early prints from wooden blocks, without the least shadowing or crossing of strokes, we may conjecture were first schemed by the illuminators of manuscripts and makers of playing cards: these they inelegantly daubed over with colours, which they termed illuminating, and sold at a cheap rate to those who could not afford to purchase valuable missals elegantly written and painted on vellum: and this conjecture seems to be corroborated by their subjects being religious, and particularly by one of their books being called the "Poor's Bible."

Desirous of giving you joy on possessing the other 47 blocks,

THE famous stone inclosed in King Edward's chair, in which the monarchs of England are seated at their coronations, seems to have continued undisturbed, through a succession of ages, in Westminster Abbey. In Mr. Widmore's valuable History of that Abbey, Lond. 1751. 4to. p. 80, is the following passage: " A. D. 1296, King Edw. I. first brought from Scotland the regalia of that kingdom, and the stone fabulously reported to have been Jacob's