OAK-TREE. 87 



With him were a company of grave and thoughtful men, 

 strangers from a far-off land, for they spoke of Rome and 

 Italy, and concerning the savage people whom they came 

 to visit. And then was seen another company of priests 

 from Bangor, that city of holy men, where the faith planted 

 by St. Paul still flourished, and from whence missionaries 

 went forth to enlighten those who remained in darkness. 

 They came to converse with Augustine, for such was the 

 stranger's name, concerning matters of high import, as 

 regarded their mutual faith ; the one wishing to engraft on 

 Christianity the observances of paganism, seeking by such 

 appliances to allure the heathen; the others, making a 

 firm stand, and determined to uphold, in all its purity, 

 the faith which they had received from their fathers. 



Since then changes passed over Britain. The forest fell 

 around me ; and where nought had been seen, except a mighty 

 intermingling of waving branches, the peasant built his hut, 

 and corn appeared in furrows. Gradually towns and villages 

 overspread the champaign country, and parks and mansions 



