1914 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 43 



GREEN LANES AND BYWAYS. 



Eev. Thos. W. Fyles, D.C.L., Ottawa. 



Old Country Lanes. 



" Through the green lanes of England, a long summer day, 

 When we wandered at will in our youth's merry May; 

 When we gathered the blooms o'er the hedge-rows that hung, 

 Or mocked the sweet song that the nightingale sung. 



" In the autumn we knew where the blackberries grew, 

 And the shy hazel-nuts hidden deep in the shade; 

 And with shouting and cheer, when the Christmas drew near, 

 In search of the ripe, ruddy holly we stray'd." 



These lines appeared in the " Illustrated London News " for January the 

 24:th, 1852. They are dear to my remembrance, for they were sung to me by a 

 much-loved companion — long gone to his rest — as we strolled along an English 

 lane, one day in the summer, after their appearance. From this friend* I received 

 my first lessons in Entomology. 



The enclosures in the rural parts of England, by which the road-ways pass, 

 have been from times immemorial, and for the most part they are known each by 

 its proper name, as "Nether lea,*' " Ea-side," " Haly-well Croft," "Twenty acres," 

 " Basket lot,'' etc. The boundaries of the fields are quickset hedges, witli ditches 

 on the outer sides. Six feet from the roots of a hedge was allowed for the ditch. 



The original growth of the hedges was Hawthorn (Cretcvgus oxycantha L.), 

 but, as time passed on, birds and other agents dropped seeds of many plants among 

 the thorns. The most noteworthy of the intruding growths are : Blackthorn 

 (Prunus spinosa), Dog-rose (Rosa canina), Honeysuckle (CaprifoUum perfol- 

 iatum), Holly (Ilex aquifolium), Traveller's Joy {Clematis vitalba) , Elder 

 (Samhucus nigra) and Bindweed {Convolvulus sepium). 



The mud from the ditches — washings from the roads and fields — is thrown 

 up periodically to the hedge-bottoms, and the fresh soil maintains the varied 

 growth in constant vigor. 



Some of the byroads of England were formerly important highways. In a 

 tour I made, in my youth, to Tennyson's country in North Lincolnshire, I came 

 one day to a little place that, I was told by a countryman, was " Spittle-in-the- 

 Street." After a little thought I understood the name. " Spittle " was 'Spital, 

 a contraction of Hospital, and the " Street " stood for the Stratum, the Roman 

 way from Lincoln {Lindum Colonia — the Colony-in-the-Marsh) to the Humber. 

 Yes, along that way, centuries ago, marched the legionaries of the Cassars, in 

 stern array, while the woad-stained Coritani peeped out upon them from their 

 coverts, in hatred and fear. 



In after and pre-reformation days, a religious house of entertainment for 

 travellers was erected beside the ancient road, and this was the Hospital-in-the- 

 Street. Tliere remained of it a farmhouse and the chapel. In the latter a clergy- 

 man from a neighbouring parish held services at stated intervals. 



*Mr. Edwin Tearle, in after years Rector of Stocton, in the Diocese of Norwich. 



