IVIED RUIN8. 
65 
other birds ; and now these shy and wary birds, that 
commonly avoid the haunts of man, constrained by 
hunger, will approach our dwellings, to feed upon the 
ripe berries of the ivy. Now too the blackbird and 
the thrush resort to its cover, to conceal their nests. 
These early-building birds find little foliage at this 
period sufficient to hide their habitations ; and did not 
the ivy lend its aid to preserve them, and no great 
number are preserved, perhaps few nests would be hid- 
den from the young eyes that seek them. The early 
expansion of the catkins of the sallow (salix caprea), 
and others of the willow tribe, whence the bee extracts 
its first food, and the late blooming of this ivy, are in- 
dispensable provisions for the existence of many of the 
insect race ; the “ young raven does not cry in vain,” 
nor is any thing abandoned by that power which called 
it into being. 
We all seem to love the ivy, 
“ The wanton ivy wreath’d in amorous twines,” 
more than any other uncultured evergreen that we pos- 
sess ; yet it is difficult satisfactorily to answer why we 
have this regard for it. As a lover of the lone, the ivy- 
mantled ruin, I have often questioned with myself the 
cause and basis of my regard for that, which was but a 
fragment of what might have been formerly splendid, 
and intrinsically possessed but little to engage admira- 
tion, yet wreathed in the verdure of the ivy, was ad- 
mired ; but was never satisfied, perhaps unwilling to 
admit the answer that my mind seemed to give. The 
ivy is a dependent plant, and delights in waste and ruin. 
We do not often tolerate its growth when the building 
is in repair and perfect ; but, if time dilapidate the edi- 
fice, the ivy takes possession cf the fragment, and we 
call it beautiful; it adorns the castle, but is an indis- 
pensable requisite to the remains of the monastic pile. 
There is an abbey in the North of England, which has 
been venerated by all its late possessors. It is trimmed, 
made neat, and looks, perhaps, much as it did formerly, 
except being in ruins. The situation is exquisite, the 
remains are splendid, yet with many it fails to excite 
F 2 
