Grasmere. Dorothy Wordsworth writes in
her Journal under date May 28th, 1802:

"We sat in the orchard. The young bull-finches in their pretty
coloured raiment, bustle about among the blossoms, and poise
themselves like wire-dancers or tumblers, shaking the twigs and
dashing off the blossoms."

Ed.

* * * * *

YEW-TREES

Composed 1803.--Published 1815

[Written at Grasmere. These Yew-trees are still standing, but the spread
of that at Lorton is much diminished by mutilation. I will here mention
that a little way up the hill, on the road leading from Rosthwaite to
Stonethwaite (in Borrowdale) lay the trunk of a Yew-tree, which appeared
as you approached, so vast was its diameter, like the entrance of a
cave, and not a small one. Calculating upon what I have observed of the
slow growth of this tree in rocky situations, and of its durability, I
have often thought that the one I am describing must have been as old as
the Christian era. The Tree lay in the line of a fence. Great masses of
its ruins were strewn about, and some had been rolled down the hillside
and lay near the road at the bottom. As you approached the tree, you
were struck with the number of shrubs and young plants, ashes, etc.,
which had found a bed upon the decayed trunk and grew to no
inconsiderable height, forming, as it were, a part of the hedgerow. In
no part of England, or of Europe, have I ever seen a yew-tree at all
approaching this in magnitude, as it must have stood. By the bye,
Hutton, the old guide, of Keswick, had been so impressed with the
remains of this tree, that he used gravely to tell strangers that there
could be no doubt of its having been in existence before the
flood.--I.F.]

One of the "Poems of the Imagination."--Ed.

There is a Yew-tree, pride of Lorton Vale,
Which to this day stands single, in the midst
Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore:
Not loth to furnish weapons for the bands
Of Umfraville or Percy ere they marched 5
To Scotland's heaths; or those that crossed the sea
And drew their sounding bows at Azincour,
Perhaps at earlier Crecy, or Poictiers.
Of vast circumference and gloom profound
This solitary Tree! a living thing 10
Produced too slowly ever to decay;
Of form and aspect too magnificent
To be destroyed. But worthier still of note
Are those fraternal Four