32 THE FERN PARADISE. 



expanding its tiny stream as it moves onward, 

 until, swollen to a torrent, it roars through deep 

 ravines, foams over rocks and boulders, and still 

 coming on ! on ! by wood-crowned heights and 

 smiling upland meadows, it rolls into sight. Every- 

 where too, as far as the eye can reach, there is a 

 grand network of green lanes, giving a marvellous 

 aspect of diversity to the whole scene. 



Two or three steps from the brow of the 

 hill whence this noble prospect is obtained, a 

 turning round to the right will lead back to the 

 town, through a lane which is indeed a veritable 

 paradise of ferns. The narrow pathway winds 

 downwards for a full mile between two tall hedges, 

 whose topmost branches here and there meet over- 

 head, forming a natural archway, so densely inter- 

 woven in some places as almost to exclude the 

 daylight ; now widening sufficiently to form a 

 delightful green vista, now narrowing until the 

 hedges on each side almost meet, and there is only 

 sufficient room for the tourist to brush between 

 the luxuriant masses of vegetation which spring 

 out from the hedge-banks. During one part of the 



