172 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



' But here 'twixt rock and river grew 

 A dismal grove of sable yew, 

 With whose sad tints were mingled seen 

 The blighted fir's sepulchral green : 

 Seem'd that the trees their shadows cast 

 The earth that nourished them to blast, 

 For never knew that swarthy grove 

 The verdant hue that fairies love ; 

 Nor wilding green, nor woodland flower. 

 Arose within its baleful bower. 

 The dark and sable earth receives 

 Its only carpet from the leaves 

 That from the withering branches cast, 

 Bestrew'd the ground with every blast.' 



In addition to these, he describes the kind of 

 locaHty which the tree loves : — 



* To where the bank opposing showed 

 Its huge square cliffs through shaggy wood, 

 One prominent above the rest, 

 Reared to the sun its pale grey breast ; 

 Around its broken summit grew 

 The hazel rude and sable yew.' 



Ruskin ^ points out ' what an exquisite chord of 

 colour is given in the succession of the passage 

 from which these lines are taken. It begins with 

 purple and blue, then to pale grey, through which 

 the yellow passes into black; and the black through 

 broken dyes of lichen, into green.' 



side next the house are some trees planted apparently about seventy years, 

 and having a diameter of i foot in most cases. One of them is about 45 feet 

 high, with a diameter of 15 inches. 

 ^ Modern Painters, vol. v. p. 281. 



