BIRCH. 213 



the living. This period answers to the twenty-first year 

 of King Ethelred the Unready, when the piratical Danes 

 made a great inroad upon the country : they sailed up to 

 the mouth of the Severn, and were fiercely repulsed by the 

 thanes who resided along its banks and in the hill country. 

 The skeleton which lay within the tumulus was, therefore, 

 most probably that of one of the thanes who were slain 

 about the time. 



Thus largely discoursed the old birch, for age is some- 

 times garrulous, and takes pleasure in recounting past 

 events. Then went on the same tree to speak concerning 

 his many uses, and the places of his resort. 



Growing at one time beside gleaming waterfalls, that 

 flash and sparkle in their downward course, and wind 

 joyfully through meadows gay with flowers, over which the 

 citron and the myrtle bend in mingled beauty ; at another, 

 on the summit of windy mountains, or in cold and frost- 

 bound regions, I shed blessings on the peasant who dwells 

 beside me. 



