Possible Clues:

• Via, old-style
• Via, to Burns
• Archaic prep.
• Via, for short
• "As __ the land at eve we went": Tennyson
• By way of, to bards
• Amidst, briefly
• Poet's "by way of"
• During, old-style
• 'Comin' ___ the Rye' (Robert Burns poem)