120 



SYLVA BRTTANNTCA. 



growing on the declivity of the hill on the south side 

 of the Abbey, all standing at this present time, ex- 

 cept the largest, which was blown down about the 

 middle of the last century. They are of an extra- 

 ordinary size ; the trunk of one of them is twenty- 

 six feet six inches in circumference, at the height of 

 three feet from the ground, and they stand so near 

 each other as to form a cover almost equal to a 

 thatched roof. Under these trees, we are told by 

 tradition, the Monks resided till they built the Mo- 

 nastery ; which seems to be very probable, if we 

 consider how little a Yew Tree increases in a year, 

 and to what a bulk these are grown. And as the 

 hill side was covered with wood, which is now al- 

 most all cut down, except these trees, it seems as if 

 they were left standing to perpetuate the memory of 

 the Monks' habitation there during the first winter 

 of their residence." 



There is something extremely captivating to the 

 imagination in the thought that these venerable trees 

 have witnessed the first rearing of the noble edifice, 

 on whose ruins they seem to look in sympathetic 

 decay. They may be imagined as addressing them — 



" O our coevals, remnants of yourselves ! " 



indeed, every thing connected with them is calcu- 

 lated to awaken the fancy of the poet and the painter, 

 and the reflections of the moralist. 



In going from Pately Bridge towards Ripon, about 



