"THE OLD PATHS" 25 



Yet who shall affirm that those well-meaning 

 shepherds did not bless McAdam in secret when 

 returning upon moonless nights from the squire's 

 mahogany after comfortable and prolonged com- 

 munion with a grand old vintage ? 



Despite Jeremiah, the "old paths" were either 

 neglected or transformed into new ones. The pack- 

 horses moved along wider and better-paved new 

 ways ; stone took the place of mud ; and only here 

 and there, in regions too remote to demand attention, 

 were the ancient tracks permitted to remain. To 

 these Nature succeeded, and quickly transformed them 

 into musical bowers of interlaced hazel, into homes of 

 many birds and flowers and creeping things innumer- 

 able. Still the blossoms and fragrant grasses bedeck 

 and adorn them ; still the ferns frequent their shelter ; 

 still above them flourish the trees, and within them 

 countless busy things increase and multiply, and justify 

 their existence with unconscious joy. 



Devon lanes possess all the characteristics of the 

 trackways on a large scale. The high banks create 

 an artificial shelter for flora, and protect growing 

 things from the wind. In Summer such a damp and 

 hothouse atmosphere is here created that green things 

 wax into giants ; for the lanes hold the rainfall 

 long after hill and vale are dry again ; the evapora- 

 tion is slow, and all vegetable growth blesses con- 

 ditions so favourable to its prosperity. Our lanes wind 

 without pattern or method through regions pastoral 

 rather than agricultural, and the shelter of the high 



