Notes L or ton 229 



ruin.' Mr. Wilson Robinson of Whinfell Hall, 

 Cockermouth, wrote of it thus to Professor 

 Knight, in 1880 : 



' The tree in outline expanded towards the root 

 considerably, then, at about 2 feet from the ground, 

 the trunk began to separate into huge limbs, 

 spreading in all directions. I once measured this 

 trunk at its least circumference, and found it 23 feet 

 10 inches. For the last fifty or sixty years, the 

 branches have been gradually dying on the south- 

 east side, and about twenty-five years ago a strong 

 south-east gale coming down Hope Gill wrenched 

 off one of the great side branches, down to the 

 ground, carrying away nearly a third of the tree. . . . 

 Many large dead branches have been cut off, and 

 now we have to regret that the ''pride of Lorton 

 Vale," shorn of its ancient dignity, is but a ruin 

 much more venerable than picturesque.' 1 



' Long after it had ceased supplying,' says the 

 Rev. H. D. Rawnsley, 2 



' weapons for the bands 

 Of Umfraville or Percy ere they marched 

 To Scotland's heaths ; or those that crossed the sea 

 And drew their sounding bows at Azincourt,' 3 



' that tree listened to the preachers of peace as 

 better than war. There, whilst Cromwell's soldiers, 



1 Through the Wordsworth Country, pp. 255, 256. 



2 The English Lakes ; vol. i. p. 219. 



3 Wordsworth, Yew- Trees, p. 22. 



