rongest temptation, were the first places seized upon, and were
instantly defaced by the intrusion.

The venerable wood that had grown for centuries round the small house
called St. Herbert's Hermitage, had indeed some years before been felled
by its native proprietor, and the whole island planted anew with Scotch
firs, left to spindle up by each other's side--a melancholy phalanx,
defying the power of the winds, and disregarding the regret of the
spectator, who might otherwise have cheated himself into a belief, that
some of the decayed remains of those oaks, the place of which was in
this manner usurped, had been planted by the Hermit's own hand. This
sainted spot, however, suffered comparatively little injury. At the
bidding of an alien improver, the Hind's Cottage, upon Vicar's island,
in the same lake, with its embowering sycamores and cattle-shed,
disappeared from the corner where they stood; and right in the middle,
and upon the precise point of the island's highest elevation, rose a
tall square habitation, with four sides exposed, like an astronomer's
observatory, or a warren-house reared upon an eminence for the detection
of depredators, or, like the temple of Oeolus, where all the winds pay
him obeisance. Round this novel structure, but at a respectful distance,
platoons of firs were stationed, as if to protect their commander when
weather and time should somewhat have shattered his strength. Within the
narrow limits of this island were typified also the state and strength
of a kingdom, and its religion as it had been, and was,--for neither was
the druidical circle uncreated, nor the church of the present
establishment; nor the stately pier, emblem of commerce and navigation;
nor the fort to deal out thunder upon the approaching invader. The taste
of a succeeding proprietor rectified the mistakes as far as was
practicable, and has ridded the spot of its puerilities. The church,
after having been docked of its steeple, is applied both ostensibly and
really, to the purpose for which the body of the pile was actually
erected, namely, a boat-house; the fort is demolished; and, without
indignation on the part of the spirits of the ancient Druids who
officiated at the circle upon the opposite hill, the mimic arrangement
of stones, with its _sanctum sanctorum_, has been swept away.

The present instance has been singled out, extravagant as it is,
because, unquestionably, this beautiful country has, in numerous other