298 A NOBLE TREE. 



strength combined, and I might add of comfort, 

 seeing how the ground beneath is free from 

 weeds, and knowing as we do, that, shaded so 

 densely, it is equally protected from night dews 

 and a scorching sun. I have measured the 

 largest of the four, a noble tree in its matu- 

 rity, without any marks of decay or approaching 

 old age. I had expected it would have mea- 

 sured more; four feet from the ground, it is 

 about twenty-five feet in girth. There is a 

 fifth yew, I see, a little detached, but so little 

 as almost to belong to the group. Is it men- 

 tioned by the poet ? 



PISCATOR. No ; no more than those qualities of 

 the trees which you have adverted to ; and 

 which, however true, would not "have accorded 

 with the train of thought which inspired the 

 verses. Eemember, that as in painting so in 

 poetry, little effect can be produced without 

 unity of design ; and that there is hardly a 

 subject not capable of producing different trains 

 of thought. Remarkable as these trees we are 

 under are, what think you of another, even more 

 remarkable an antediluvian ! A few years ago, 

 there was a tree of vast size, that was so re- 



