BY A TARN SIDE. 9 



however, we will return by-and-by. The first 

 thing you notice is how much higher the ground is 

 on the upper part of the slope against the hedge, 

 than on the other side. In some cases it may be 

 five or six feet indeed, the latter is any thing but 

 an unusual occurrence. How is this ? It is certain 

 that the original makers of the hedge never so banked 

 up the soil; it would take no small time to do it. 

 The real explanation has to be sought for in meteor- 

 ological agencies. The rains of many generations 

 have washed away the surface soils, especially in 

 cultivated fields, and the slope of the ground has 

 caused the material to be carried down. The hedge 

 has stopped its further conveyance, and thus caused 

 the upper side of the hedge to be so much higher 

 than the lower. Destroy the hedge, as is often done 

 when one field has to be thrown into another, and 

 you will have running parallel with a valley a genuine 

 terrace, which some geologist hereafter, ignorant of 

 the true cause, may put c:own to having been formed 

 when the river stood much higher than it does now ; 

 or, if he be more visionary, may see in it an old sea- 

 beach, formed when the sea last came up this parti- 

 cular valley, and made of it an estuary ! 



Let us now return to the lanes. Many of them 

 are deep, as if they had been cut, when in reality it is 

 the ground on the other side the hedge which has been 

 raised in the manner just described. How old some 

 of these hawthorn shrubs really are we dare not say. 

 The origin of the lanes is lost in antiquity. Many 



