6 
their strength and grâce; but decay is nevertheless 
slowly at work, undermining their strength and marring 
their grâce, and at length the Ivy waves over them 
his dark hanner of victory. 
Deserted palaces of kings, 
Arches of triumph long o’erthrown, 
And ail once glorious earthly things, 
At length are thine alone! 
’Tis still the same, where’er we tread, 
The wrecks of liuman power we see, 
The marvel of ail âges fled, 
Left to decay and thee ! 
Mes. Hemans. 
Within a drive of Ayott St. Lawrence stand the 
ruined and deserted halls of Gorhambury, once the 
home of Bacon, the walls of which are covered with 
Ivy. When this was the résidence of his father, Sir 
Nicholas Bacon, it was visited by Queen Elizabeth 
and her court ; and thought naturally pictures the 
different aspect it must in that time of revelry and 
splendour hâve presented to that which it now wears. 
How rich, how indestructible, must hâve appeared the 
princely hall, whose mirth is now the song of birds, 
whose ornament, 
“ Fantastic ivy’s gadding spray.” 
