Lover's Lane

"Well, when I was a boy I loved the wind, too. Do you remember how it used to purr in Lover’s Lane, Anne?"

- Gilbert to Anne. Lover's Lane is a secluded pathway in the village of Avonlea, Prince Edward Island, which passes between the Avonlea woods, Green Gables and Orchard Slope.

History
During the 1870s, Anne and Diana started their walks to the Avonlea school by the way of Lover's Lane. Anne would walk along the lane 'as far as the brook', where Diana would meet her, and they would continue along the path, under the arch of maple trees, until they came to a 'rustic bridge', which would take them beyond the lane into Mr. Barry's back field.

In 1877, Anne and Diana ran via Lover's Lane and the field beyond to reach Orchard Slope when Minne May was taken ill with croup. In the early hours of the morning, Matthew arrived at the Barry home with a doctor, and he and Anne returned to Green Gables through 'the glittering fairy arch of the Lover's Lane maples'.

Throughout Anne's youth, she and Diana would play along Lover's Lane and the surrounding area, and Anne would often help Matthew by driving the cows home along the lane. After Anne forgave Gilbert, they made many walks along Lover's Lane as friends and, later, lovers. The lane was also, significantly, the place where Pacifique walked through after giving Anne hope for the future by informing her that Gilbert had "got de turn" in his illness. During Anne's days teaching at the Avonlea school, she wrote a poem in Lover's Lane entitled "The Gate of Dream", which she later told Gilbert had been inspired by him and materialised in their happiness during their House of Dreams days.

During the Christmas holiday of 1888, Katherine Brooke walked along Lover's Lane with Anne in peaceful silence after a snow storm as they slowly became good friends.

In 1899, Anne and Diana revisited Lover's Lane, where Anne commented how delightful it would be to encounter their ghost-selves as children. Diana, shuddering, did not agree.

During the 1900s, the Blythe children made many visits to Green Gables and became well-acquainted with Lover's Lane and the other areas associated with their mother's childhood in Avonlea.

Location
"Lover's Lane opened out below the orchard at Green Gables and stretched far up into the woods to the end of the Cuthbert farm. It was the way by which the cows were taken to the back pasture and the wood hauled home in winter."

Physical appearance
"It was a September evening and all the gaps and clearings in the woods were brimmed up with ruby sunset light. Here and there the lane was splashed with it, but for the most part it was already quite shadowy beneath the maples, and the spaces under the firs were filled with a clear violet dusk like airy wine. The winds were out in their tops, and there is no sweeter music on earth than that which the wind makes in the fir trees at evening."

The beauty of Lover’s Lane often came from the 'dappling shadows' created by the sun, where it filtered through the maple and fir trees, which arched over the path. At night-time, the lane would be illuminated from the glow of the fireflies and the soft light of the stars.

Etymology
Anne informed Marilla that, after having been at Green Gables just under a month, she had named the pathway Lover's Lane after the name had featured in a 'perfectly magnificent book' that she and Diana were reading at the time.

Behind the scenes

 * On August 1, 1909 Montgomery wrote in her journal: "I owe much to that dear lane. And in return I have given it love – and fame. I painted it in my book: and as a result the name of this little remote woodland lane is known all over the world".
 * Montgomery wrote a poem entitled "In Lover’s Lane", which featured in The Watchman and Other Poems (1916).

Appearances
Book appearances
 * Anne of Green Gables
 * Anne of Avonlea
 * Anne of the Island
 * Anne of the Island
 * Anne of Windy Poplars
 * Anne's House of Dreams
 * Anne of Ingleside
 * Rainbow Valley (mentioned only)

Short story appearances
 * The Road to Yesterday
 * "Fool's Errand" (mentioned only)
 * The Blythes Are Quoted
 * "The Seventh Evening" (mentioned only)
 * "Fool's Errand" (mentioned only)
 * "Another Ingleside Twilight" (mentioned only)