454 THE IVY - 



is chosen to be the harbinger of merriment and joy. Scarcely has 

 the sun's full stop at the tropic of Capricorn announced to us the 

 dawn of the shortest day, ere the housemaid begins to set her rooms 

 in order, and the gardener is desired to prepare his sprigs of holly, 

 box, and yew, as ornaments for every window on the eve of the 

 annual commemoration of that long-promised day, when the eternal 

 Son of God was born of the Blessed Virgin in a stable at Bethlehem 

 for sinful man's redemption. 



If the leaves of the yew tree were armed with sharp spikes like 

 those of the holly, we should have a treasure of a tree for the pro- 

 tection of the feathered tribe during the stormy nights of winter. 

 But the want of these repellant appendages renders the yew tree 

 highly perilous to the birds which resort to its inviting foliage for 

 sleep or shelter, as the cat, the stoat, the weasel, and the foumart 

 can pervade its branches with the utmost impunity : whilst the 

 Hanoverian rat, so notorious for self and pelf, is ever prying amongst 

 them, and fleecing their inmates with a perseverance scarcely to be 

 imagined. 



THE IVY. 



WE live to learn. I was not sufficiently aware of the value of ivy 

 for the protection of the feathered race, until I had seen the phea- 

 sant preserve of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in the year 1817. It 

 is called the Cascini, and it is a kind of Hyde Park for the inhabit- 

 ants of Florence in their evening recreations. At the grove of the 

 Cascini, you see the ivy growing in all its lofty pride and beauty. 

 As I gazed on its astonishing luxuriance, I could not help entertain- 

 ing a high opinion of the person, be he alive or dead, through whose 

 care and foresight such an effectual protection had been afforded to 

 the wild birds of heaven, in the very midst of the " busy haunts of 

 men." The trees in this ornamented grove are loaded with a pro- 

 fusion of ivy, from their lowest to their topmost branches; and 

 although crowds of fashionable carriages were rolling along the road 



