TREES AND LANES 



47 



small way I have done what I could, and three good 

 cottages will survive me. 



In the old country dwellings by the roadsides, not 

 only is the main fabric of near-at-hand material, but, 

 if the cottage stands a few feet above the road, there 

 will be a bit of dry wall and rough steps made of the 

 Avide slab- shaped stones that occur in some of the 

 upper strata of the stone-pits. When they come out 

 of the quarry they are rough and rugged of surface, 

 but they are soon worn smooth. Often there are a 

 few square yards of paving at a cottage entrance, and 

 most commonly some of the same sandstone slabs are 

 laid flat, and the rest of the pavement is a " pitching " 

 of the black stones that are found in and near the 

 heathlands just below the surface. They are water- 

 washed stones containing a large proportion of iron ; 

 a large number of them have one flattened edge that 

 makes an admirable paving surface ; they are so hard 

 that their wearing power is almost indefinite. Smaller 

 pieces of the sandstone are also used in the same way. 

 The picture shows a paved path just within the road- 

 side wicket that gives access to a row of three vine- 

 clad cottages. It is a mixed pavement of sandstone 

 slab, sandstone and ironstone pitching, and brick. 

 The Pinks and Wall-flowers, Pansies and Sweet- Williams 

 of the cottage flower-borders never look so well as 

 when hanging over the edges of these paved paths ; 

 in the case of the present illustration the two-flowered 

 Everlasting Pea {Latliyrus (/randijiorv.s) under the dove's 



