THE IVY. 



285 



not regard this Ivy as a relic of ancient days ; as 

 having shadowed the religious recluse, and with 

 it often, doubtless, piety and faith ; for it did not 

 hang around the building in old time, but is 

 comparatively a modern upstart, a sharer of mo- 

 nastic spoils, a usurper of that which has been 

 abandoned by another. The tendril, pendent 

 from the orient window, lightly defined in the 

 ray which it excludes, twining with graceful ease 

 round some slender shaft, or woven amid the 

 tracery of the florid arch, is elegantly ornamen- 

 tal, and gives embellishment to beauty ; but the 

 main body of the Ivy is dark, sombre, massy ; 

 yet, strip it from the pile, and we call it sacri- 

 lege, the interest of the whole is at an end, the 

 eff'ect ceases, 



' One moment seen, then lost for ever.' 



Yet what did the Ivy effect ? what has departed 

 with it ? This evanescent charm, perhaps, con- 

 sists in the obscurity, in the sobriety of light it 

 occasioned, in hiding the bare reality, and giving 

 to fancy and imagination room to expand, a play- 

 thing to amuse them." 



Ivy is often associated with Holly and other 

 evergreens in the decoration of our churches 

 at Christmas, but for no other reason that I am 

 aware of than that it retains its freshness for 

 a considerable time, and that its dark berries 

 contrast well with the bright scarlet berries of 

 the Holly. 



The Ivy is confined to temperate climates, but 

 grows wild neither in America nor Australia. 

 About Smyrna in Asia Minor it is very common, 

 forming the greatest part of the hedges, and 



