THE FEKN PAKAD1SE. 



with an inexpressible eagerness, for the trees and 

 green lanes of the country. 



And if a journey anywhere to green fields and 

 green trees be delightful, how intensely enjoyable 

 it must be to speed away to the ferny lanes of 

 Devonshire ! Can those, we wonder, who have 

 never visited that exquisitely beautiful county, 

 have the smallest idea of the inexpressible love- 

 liness of its green and ferny lanes ? 



How can we induce those who have never 

 visited the ' garden of England J to do so without 

 delay? The attempt is, at least, worth a trial. 

 We have in a previous chapter explained that 

 during a summer visit we had roughly noted down 

 our impressions of two charming green lanes in 

 South Devon. Our notes were lightly jotted 

 down and lightly thrown together. But we deter- 

 mined to expand our Fern papers so that they 

 might reach the dimensions of a volume. With 

 this object in view we needed to obtain fresh 

 materials, and in order that these might be of the 

 freshest kind, other visits to the delightful lanes 

 of Devonshire would be necessary. We therefore 

 decided that our plan of operations should be as 





92 



