the remainder of the tree, which was not
much the worse for what had been done. Many large dead branches have
also been cut off, and now we have to regret that the 'pride of Lorton
Vale,' shorn of its ancient dignity, is but a ruin, much more
venerable than picturesque."

The "fraternal Four of Borrowdale" are certainly "worthier still of
note." The "trunk" described in the Fenwick note, as on the road between
Rosthwaite and Stonethwaite, has disappeared long ago; but the "solemn
and capacious grove" existed till 1883 in its integrity. The description
in the poem is realistic throughout, while the visible scene suggests

"an ideal grove, in which the ghostly masters of mankind meet, and
sleep, and offer worship to the Destiny that abides above them, while
the mountain flood, as if from another world, makes music to which
they dimly listen."

(Stopford A. Brooke, in 'Theology in the English Poets', p. 259.) With
the first part of the poem Wordsworth's 'Sonnet composed at----Castle'
during the Scotch Tour of 1803 may be compared (p. 410). For a critical
estimate of the poem see 'Modern Painters', part III. sec. II, chap. iv.
Ruskin alludes to "the real and high action of the imagination in
Wordsworth's 'Yew-trees' (perhaps the most vigorous and solemn bit of
forest landscape ever painted). It is too long to quote, but the reader
should refer to it: let him note especially, if painter, that pure touch
of colour, 'by sheddings from the pining umbrage tinged.'" See also
Coleridge's criticism in 'Biographia Literaria', vol. ii. p. 177,
edition 1847, and his daughter Sara's comment on her father's note.
There can be little doubt that, as Professor Dowden has suggested, the
lines 23 to 28 were suggested to Wordsworth by Virgil's lines in the
Sixth Book of the 'AEneid', 273-284--

'Vestibulum ante ipsum primisque in faucibus Orci
Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae;
Pallentesque habitant Morbi, tristisque Senectus,
Et Metus, et malesuada Fames, ac turpis Egestas,
Terribiles visu formae, Letumque, Labosque;
Tum consanguineus Leti Sopor, et mala mentis
Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine Bellum,
Ferreique Eumenidum thalami, et Discordia demens,
Vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis.
In medio ramos annosaque bracchia pandit
Ulmus opaca, ingens, quam sedem Somnia volgo
Vana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus haerent.'

"The 'Four Yew Trees,' and the mysterious company