TO TWICKENHAM. 115 



style. The lawn was enlarged ; and toward 

 the margin of the river, supported with un-r 

 common care, he pointed out to them the 

 two weeping willows planted by Pope him- 

 self. Those who venerate every memorial 

 pf departed genius have been anxious to 

 obtain slips of these trees; nor has this 

 anxiety been confined to our own island ; 

 many have been sent to different parts of 

 Europe: and in 1789, the late Empress of 

 Russia procured some of them, which were 

 planted in her own garden at Petersburgh. 



The youths next expressed a wish to view 

 the celebrated grotto which was erected 

 under the immediate direction of the poet ; 

 but the dilapidations of time, and the pious 

 thefts of visitors, who select the spars, ores, 

 and even the common flints, as so many 

 sacred relics, have nearly reduced it to ruin. 

 The "perpetual rill that echoed through the 

 cavern day and night/' is no longer in 

 existence. 



In two adjoining apertures in the rock, 



are 



