32 
THE FERN PARADISE. 
expanding its tiny stream as it moves onward, 
until, swollen to a torrent, it roars through deep 
ravines, foams over rocks and boulders, and still 
coming on ! on ! by wood-crowned heights and 
smiling upland meadows, it rolls into sight. Every- 
where too, as far as the eye can reach, there is a 
grand network of green lanes, giving a marvellous 
aspect of diversity to the whole scene. 
Two or three steps from the brow of the 
hill whence this noble prospect is obtained, a 
turning round to the right will lead back to the 
town, through a lane which is indeed a veritable 
paradise of ferns. The narrow pathway winds 
downwards for a full mile between two tall hedges, 
whose topmost branches here and there meet over- 
head, forming a natural archway, so densely inter- 
woven in some places as almost to exclude the 
daylight ; now widening sufficiently to form a 
delightful green vista, now narrowing until the 
hedges on each side almost meet, and there is only 
sufficient room for the tourist to brush between 
the luxuriant masses of vegetation which spring 
out from the hedge-banks. During one part of the 
