FOOT-PATHS. 203 



more Common. The Common at another point may 

 be reached by a shorter cut. After entering a path 

 close by the lodge, open the first gate you come to 

 on the right hand. Cross the road, go through the 

 gate opposite and either follow the road right out 

 upon Ranmore Common, past the beautiful deep dell 

 or ravine, or take a path which you will see on your 

 left, a few yards from the gate. This winds through 

 a very pretty wood, with glimpses of the valley here 

 and there on the way, and eventually brings you out 

 upon the carriage-drive to the house. Turn to the 

 right and you will soon find yourself upon the Com- 

 mon. A road or path opens out in front of the up- 

 per lodge gate. Follow that and it will take you to 

 a small piece of water from whence a green path 

 strikes off to the right, and this will lead you all 

 across the Common in a northerly direction," etc. 

 Thus we may see how the country is threaded with 

 paths. A later writer, the author of " The Game- 

 keeper at Home " and other books, says : " Those 

 only know a country who are acquainted with itp 

 foot-paths. By the roads, indeed, the outside r^ay 

 oe seen ; but the foot-paths go through the heart of 

 the land. There are routes by which mile after mile 

 may be traveled without leaving the sward. So you 

 may pass from village to village ; now crossing green 

 meadows, now corn-fields, over brooks, past woods, 

 through farm-yard and rick < barken.' " 



The conditions of life in this country have not 

 been favorable to the development of by-ways. W* 



