TO HIS GARDENER 3 



I found all neglected when I came home, few Seeds of any kind 

 sav'd, and little left of the Seeds of the former year. 

 Toff;i 4^h Deer. 1727. 



II 



Charles, — I wrote to you of 5th and also to Alex' Wight 17 Jany. 173I. 

 before I received yours. I have now yours of 7th. I can 

 recollect little about planting which I did not mention to you 

 in my last or in some letters I wrot to Alex"" Wight before I 

 received any from you. I would have you prune up the holly s 

 and Yews in the Haining as you doe other trees, to see how 

 high we can carry them. I told you in my last my opinion 

 about Alex"^ Wight's Wood. There has been weather which 

 allowed of little other work. I hope good use has been made 

 of itt that way. A Wood to be cutt 3 or 4 years hence will 

 be much the better for having the good for little trees cutt 

 out now and the bodys of the trees which are to stand being 

 all good a great way up. If this is done carefully now the 

 bodies will grow a good deal in bigness in that time, and they 

 will also putt out larger tops high up. They will cure of the 

 Wounds and in 3 or 4 years be tall well bodyM trees, so I am 

 not for sparing in pruning up high espicially what is not to be 

 cutt till summer come 4 years. Don't all the trees in the little 

 AVood by east the Town of Orm: want being prun'd up, to 

 make them clean body'd and to encourage them in running 

 high. Chizells with long handles must be us'd both in the old 

 Wood and in that by east the Town. I don't know who are 

 employed in the Woods or about the other plantations, neither 

 doe I know what any of the people's business is who are my 

 Serv*^ there and my advices or directions have not been 

 comply'd with being thought bad, so I won't order any thing. 

 What I write is only my opinion to you, but doe you follow 

 the orders you receive from my Brother, whether agreeable to 

 what I write or not. I don't know at all upon what foot 

 Ch: Cokburne is at the Town and how far he is or not my 

 Serv*, and if he is my Serv* in what he has been employ'd for 

 I have not heard of his having been Imploy'd about the 



1 *TofF' here is a misreading for Tott., that is, Tottenham, where Cockburn 

 lived before he removed to Hampstead. 



