The Fringe of the Road 95 



This origin of the turfy roadside fringes is perhaps 

 most clearly indicated by the unusually wide margin 

 which is frequently noticeable in damp, low-lying 

 ground. In such places the road to-day is often 

 separated from the hedgerows by a dozen or twenty 

 yards of grass, fragrant with mint in dewy mid- 

 summer evenings, and bright through September 

 with willow-herb and yellow fleabane. In such 

 marshy spots, where the waggon teams foundered 

 deeply in the unmade track, each would diverge 

 more widely than its predecessor to left or right to 

 gain the advantage of a new surface, until the bad 

 spot was passed. The wetness of the soil in such 

 spots gave them little value in the farmer's eyes, 

 and helped to preserve them with their native 

 vegetation and animal life. The road fringe marks 

 to-day the breadth of the trail marked out by the 

 wheels or pack-horse hooves of Stuart or early 

 Hanoverian times. The narrowest of all our lanes 

 are those which had already bitten deeply into the 

 soil when the country was first enclosed, so that 

 the hedgerows were planted on the very brink 

 of their shady hollows. Instead of level fringes 

 of turf, such lanes have a still richer adornment 

 in the wild gardens of moss, ferns, ivy, and many 

 flowers which centuries have ripened upon their 

 banks. 



The wild flowers of many rough roadside fringes 

 are the surviving representatives of those which 

 once blew freely over the whole breadth of what 

 is now the farm-land on each side. But by the 

 border of many well-used country highways nature 



