DOWN A GREEN LANE ! 



In another moment, however, the open country 

 disappears from view, as we pursue our way 

 downwards. The path now descends so swiftly, 

 that we need some care to secure a foot-hold. 

 As it descends, it narrows to the width of a 

 foot, and from its rugged stony character it is 

 .easy to see that it has been cut out of the rocky 

 hillside, in the days of packhorses, and before 

 the age of carts. Higher and higher grow the 

 moss-covered banks, sloping outwards and up- 

 wards. Here, on our left, at the .top of the high 

 cutting for it is no longer a hedge is a spread- 

 ing oak tree, thickly matted with gnarled roots 

 of ivy. From out of the forks of this beautiful 

 tree, just over our head, drop the pretty fronds of 

 Poly podium vuJgare. Below, the side of the 

 cutting is densely clothed with Ferns of glorious 

 growth. Splendid specimens of the Male Fern 

 which, from their erect and noble-looking, yet 

 withal graceful habit, fairly earn their designa 

 tion. Growing to the left of the Male Ferns, 

 whose fronds are more than a yard long, are two 

 magnificent specimens of the Broad Buckler Ferr. 

 the curling pinnules of the fronds giving to 



149 



