140 Address to the L.N.U. 
land it was to cross in those days, the long, lone, level line of a 
well-kept war path, stretching lke a ribbon over the heath, and 
marked at short intervals with high stones or posts as a guiding 
line in fog or snow, ina solitude but rarely broken, except by the 
footfall of the legionaries and the dismal creakings of the baggage 
train and provision carts, while above, under the blue heaven, the 
lark carolled as it does now, and the plaint of the golden plover 
sounded sweet from off the moorlands. 
The north-east corner of Lincolnshire, notwithstanding recent 
changes and trade encroachments, is still rich in animal and plant 
life, and presents a wide field for future research. Further west- 
ward, and beyond the ‘Trent, lies the Isle of Axholme; some 
portion adjoining the great deer chase of Hatfield and Lindholme, 
in Yorkshire, was once the hunting-ground of Englishkings. We 
must turn to the pages of historians, such as Leland, De la Pryme, 
Dr. Stonehouse and others, if we wish to learn its ancient condition 
before the enterprise of the Dutchman, Vermuyden, transformed its 
wastes and swamps and demon-haunted solitudes into fertile 
lands, and at the same time banished its indigenous flora and 
fauna. In fact, the entire district, including Thorne waste, beyond 
our border, and portions also east of Trent, resembled the 
“ tundras”’ of Lapland and northern Asia, and, like these, were the 
breeding-homes of innumerable wild-fowl and waders. Most 
suggestive of a not remote Arctic character are the lingering of 
such plants as Selaginella selaginoides, Lycopodium alpinum, 
recently discovered by the Rev. W. Fowler, also Andromeda 
polifolia, and Empetrum nigrum, on Thorne waste, Myvica gale, 
generally, and the impressions of leaves of some Arctic willow in 
the laminated silts and peaty alluviums. 
Of our sixth district, that south of Grantham and east of 
Belvoir, I can tell you little, for excepting in passing through by 
rail, it is a terva incognita to me. ‘The chief attraction is 
Grimsthorpe Park, which contains many fine oaks, hornbeams and 
hawthorns, and a small herd of red deer—interesting as the only 
one left inthe county, and decendants of those indigenous deer 
which at one period wandered wild, free and unrestricted through 
the length and breadth of the land. 
