THROUGH THE YEAR 187 



timber, stripping bark a dwindling if not a dying 

 business hurdling and faggoting have had a little 

 dialect of their own in the South, and I dare say in 

 the North and Midlands. I have spoken of some 

 of these good wood-words before, but not of the 

 term " lans " used of the lines of brown underwood 

 where it lies cut and ready for the hurdler and 

 faggoter. I have spent much of my life in a place 

 where this term is still general. It is well known 

 to buyers and sellers of underwood, and is always 

 used by the woodworkers. I used to think it was 

 " lands of wood," but I was told by one who can 

 hardly be mistaken in such a thing that, when used 

 by the woodworkers, it is always " lans of wood." 



The lans is rather a favourite spot for game, fur 

 and feather. I cannot recall finding a hare among 

 lans. Hares choose high and standing underwood 

 to rest in during the day, where they will sit in a 

 " form " on the bare ground among the dead oak 

 and hazel leaves, or in a thin bit of bracken ; they 

 do not try to hide among undergrowth, as a rabbit 

 does when resting in its form. But into the lans 

 many rabbits creep, and even sharp terriers are hard 

 put to it to hustle them out. In spring the lans are 

 favoured by wild pheasants, which often make their 

 nests among the felled underwood. Of little birds, 

 wrens haunt the lans all through the winter, whilst 

 blackbirds and thrushes nest there in early spring. 

 The origin of the word is obscure, but I think it is 

 probably identical with the old harvesting term once 

 used in Kent. There it was " land " not " Ian." 



