Pearson's Xane 



IT is not a long lane, but is now a very lonely 

 one. It is as straight as a surveyor could plot 

 it, and as level as any plane could smooth it. 

 There are very ordinary fields on each side, and 

 from no point of view is there a commanding out- 

 look. Yet when you turn into it from the public 

 road you draw in a long breath, and give utterance 

 to an exclamation of delight. Do not ask why. 

 That is a problem every one solves for himself when 

 he happens here, and it is a red-letter day to any 

 rambler to stroll up Pearson's lane, or loiter under 

 any one of the old apple-trees in it. Let this fact 

 suffice, and seek for no explanations. The old 

 apple-trees : have these to do with the undoubted 

 charm ? It was in the spring of 1800 that a man, 

 whom I well remember, celebrated his twenty- first 

 birthday by planting twelve trees in the lane, six 

 on each side. Five of the dozen remain, and 

 when I last passed by they had fruit upon them. 

 The trees lack little of being a century old, but the 

 lane itself was opened by the original settler in 

 12* 181 



