of Borrowdale,
Joined in one solemn and capacious grove; 15
Huge trunks! and each particular trunk a growth
Of intertwisted fibres serpentine
Up-coiling, and inveterately convolved;
Nor uninformed with Phantasy, and looks
That threaten the profane;--a pillared shade, 20
Upon whose grassless floor of red-brown hue,
By sheddings from the pining umbrage tinged
Perennially--beneath whose sable roof
Of boughs, as if for festal purpose, decked
With unrejoicing berries--ghostly Shapes 25
May meet at noontide; Fear and trembling Hope,
Silence and Foresight; Death the Skeleton
And Time the Shadow;--there to celebrate,
As in a natural temple scattered o'er
With altars undisturbed of mossy stone, 30
United worship; or in mute repose
To lie, and listen to the mountain flood
Murmuring from Glaramara's inmost caves.

The text of this poem was never altered. The Lorton Yew-tree--which, in
1803, was "of vast circumference," the "pride of Lorton Vale," and
described as:

'a living thing
Produced too slowly ever to decay;
Of form and aspect too magnificent
To be destroyed--'

does not now verify its poet's prediction of the future. Mr. Wilson
Robinson of Whinfell Hall, Cockermouth, wrote to me of it in May 1880:

"The tree in outline expanded towards the root considerably: then, at
about two feet from the ground, the trunk began to separate into huge
limbs, spreading in all directions. I once measured this trunk at its
least circumference, and found it 23 feet 10 inches. For the last 50
or 60 years the branches have been gradually dying on the S. E. side,
and about 25 years ago a strong S. E. gale, coming with accumulated
force down Hope Gill, and--owing to the tree being so open on that
side--taking it laterally at a disadvantage, wrenched off one of the
great side branches down to the ground, carrying away nearly a third
of the tree. This event led to farther peril; for, the second portion
having been sold to a cabinetmaker at Whitehaven for L15, this gave
the impression that the wood was very valuable (owing to the celebrity
of the tree); and a local woodmonger bought the remainder. Two men
worked half a day to grub it up; but a Cockermouth medical gentleman,
hearing what was going on, made representations to the owner, and it
ended in the woodmen sparing