[Archers] BBC: 600 Year-Old Yew Tree in England

[Garth Groff]

Noble friends,

The BBC recently featured this brief story about the Wakehurst Place 
yew, a 600 year-old tree in England: 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-16288408 .

So what's important about an old tree? For one, it was apparently 
deliberately planted around 1391 as an early landscaping project. 
Second, a great many important events happened around that time, and if 
trees had eyes and memories, it would have been witness (sort-of) to a 
lot of important stuff. Finally, we archers have, or should have, deep 
respect for the yew, since yew staves were used for the great English 
longbow. Set aside for a moment the fact that English yew is twisty and 
doesn't make good bows, and that nearly all yew bows started with 
continental wood, it reminds us of how valuable this slow-growing and 
rare tree was.

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier