E-text prepared by Henry Flower and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 57097-h.htm or 57097-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/57097/57097-h/57097-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/57097/57097-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/icknieldwaywithi00thomuoft Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). A carat character is used to denote superscription. Superscripted characters are enclosed by curly brackets (example: 23^{rd} March). THE ICKNIELD WAY * * * * * * _UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME_ THE OLD ROAD By HILAIRE BELLOC Illustrated by WILLIAM HYDE THE STANE STREET By HILAIRE BELLOC Illustrated by WILLIAM HYDE THE FOREST OF DEAN By ARTHUR O. COOKE Illustrated by J. W. KING * * * * * * [Illustration: STREATLEY MILL AND CHURCH] THE ICKNIELD WAY by EDWARD THOMAS With Illustrations by A. L. Collins London Constable & Company Ltd. 1916 DEDICATION TO HARRY HOOTON When I sat down at the “Dolau Cothi Arms” this evening I remembered my dedication to you. You said I could dedicate this book to you if I would make a real dedication, not one of my shadowy salutes befitting shadows rather than men and women. It seems odd you should ask thus for a sovereign’s worth of--shall I say--English prose from a writer by trade. But though I turn out a large, if insufficient, number of sovereigns’ worths, and am become a writing animal, and could write something or other about a broomstick, I do not write with ease: so let that difficulty give the dedication its value.