122 SYLVA BRITANNICA. 



seconds, as if it floated along the ruined choirs and 

 vaulted passages of the roofless Abbey. Inex- 

 pressibly interesting are these aerial sounds to the 

 imaginative ear! It should seem as if the spirits of 

 the cowled brethren still loved to linger in the haunts 

 so dear to them whilst they were in a state of mor- 

 tal existence still loved to keep up a link of asso- 

 ciation with those who, themselves " warm in life," 

 may have been treading just before on the ashes, 

 which, at the sound of human footsteps, again glowed 

 with their wonted fires. It did ind'eed seem the 

 voice of past ages, 



" Vox et praeterea nihil :" 



but how eloquent the response which calls up the 

 scenes and actors of so long a train of centuries gone 

 by ! It is such thoughts as these that invest the 

 venerable Yew Trees, the silent witnesses of the 

 changes of time, and the decays of nature, with so 

 much interest, and renders their preservation so de- 

 sirable. They do not, however, appear to be treated 

 with the reverence due to them : a low wall hides 

 their weather-beaten boles on the side whence they 

 would otherwise be seen to the most advantage, and 

 a paltry little stable is erected almost beneath their 

 branches ; on which, worst injury of all, the marks 

 of the despoiling axe are but too visible, and the 

 ground underneath is strewed with fragments of 



