1 74 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Produced too slowly ever to decay \ * 



Of form and aspect too magnificent 



To be destroyed. But worthier still of note 



Are those fraternal four of Borrodale, 



Joined in one solemn and capacious grove ; 



Huge trunks ! and each particular trunk a growth 



Of intertwisted fibres serpentine 



Up-coiling and inveterately convolved, 



Nor un-informed with phantasy ', and looks 



That threaten the profane ; a pillared shade 



Upon whose grassless floor of red-brown hue 



By sheddings from the pining umbrage tinged 



Perennially beneath whose sable roof 



Of boughs, as if for festal purpose, decked 



With unrejoicing berries ghostly shapes 



May meet at noontide : Fear and trembling Hope, 



Silence and Foresight ; Death the Skeleton 



And Time the Shadow ; there to celebrate, 



As in a natural temple scattered o'er 



With altars undisturbed of mossy stone, 



United worship ; or in mute repose 



To lie, and listen to the mountain-flood 



Murmuring from Glaramara's inmost caves.' 



Ruskin 2 thinks this piece of Wordsworth's ' the 

 most vigorous and solemn bit of forest landscape 

 ever painted,' and draws the especial attention of 

 the painter to that pure touch of colour * by shed- 

 dings from the pining umbrage tinged.' 3 



1 The statement * produced too slowly ever to decay ' is surely in excess of 

 poetic licence, for though the wood itself is very durable, it may safely be 

 asserted that scarcely any tree of this kind is found without decay after its 

 second century. It seems that much of the resistance to decay is due to the 

 dryness of the trunk caused by the shelter of its branches. 



3 Modern Painters, vol. ii. 3 V. Leyden, p. 169. 



