In converse still unbroken, thence we passed

Into the stately garden-walks, and there

Paced to and fro beside the aged yews

Which once like living guardians of the lawn

Had marshalled all the place with verdant walls:

Now, mere memorials of their former sway.

’Twas a dark vapoury noon, while ruddy gleams

Were mingling with the sun, and fell athwart

The cloistral lime-tree avenue beyond;

And like a curtain, the moist atmosphere