1862,] KENTTSH I'OTANY, 135 



great parodies and chirches siiintyme is now scant one well 

 maynteined/^ — Leland's 'Itinerary/ vii. 142; ^ jioi.libuuj ciiij 



Vt'c walked down the main street of New RbHatiey and back 

 again, like the King of Spain, who led his army np the hill and 

 led them down again, as the nnrsery legends relate. The appear- 

 ance of the town did not indnce ns to lodge here, and we walked 

 on I to Lydd, Avhicli was only three miles further, and here we 

 baited and rested for the night. There is a nearer way than the 

 one we took, viz. the road which branches off to the right at 

 Old Romney. This would have saved two or three miles. 



There is a very pleasant walk from New Romney to Lydd, 

 across the meadows and over the sandhill, at the extremity of 

 which is the little town of Lydd, which was a pretty and con- 

 siderable market toAvn Avhen visited by Petiver and Sherard in 

 1714. (See ' Phytologist,' vol. vi. p. 117:) 



The following description of this ancient town, from Leland's 

 ' Itinerary,^ sliows what mutations it has undergone since the 

 sixteenth century : — " Lydde is counted as a parte of Rumeney, 

 and is a iii. myles beyond Rumeney Town and a Market. The 

 town is of a prety quantite, and the towneseh (townsmen) men 

 use botes (boats) to the se, the which at this time is a myle of. 

 The hole town is conteyned in one paroche, but that is very 

 large. In the mydde way (or their about) betwixt Rumeney 

 town and Lydde the marsch land beginneth . . . and contynneth 

 a prety way beyond Lydde, and running into a poynt y* standeth 

 as an armed foreland or a nesse. Their is a place beyound Lydde 

 wliere as a great numbre of Holme trees growethupon a banke 

 of baclies (shingle?) throwen up by the, sea,:iaud,theii: they bat 

 (catch) fowle and kill many birdes.'''' ; 'y-^inn-n -io -ioom i^ ,-u\li^iy-\.yi^>^... 

 "'Next morning, the 13th of August,' WMrM\fjiWi'£M*I'f past 

 five o'clock to go to the M'oolpack Inn, near Brookland, to meet 

 a friend from London. This walk, which was about six miles, 

 yielded nothing which we had not previously seen, except Dwarf 

 EM6r {Sambucus Ebillus), which gi^ew by the roadside, a mile or 

 further from the Woolpack, on the road from Lydd to Rye. 

 ,,j After bi:eakfasting at the Woolpack we went into the Marsh 

 to see the natives duck-driving, not a very exciting exercise. The 

 ciii^^om in the Marsh is to breed large broods of ducklings under 

 henSj and when the young birds are old enough to forage for 

 ,themselyes>ithBy are turned out into the ditches. On certain days 



