102 HEDGE-ROW TIMBER. 



have to do with the timber of our hedges not 

 because I can feel a doubt that my statements will 

 carry conviction along with them ; but because 

 I must necessarily come into collision, both with 

 the refined tastes, and with the prejudices, of many 

 of my readers. For instance : if I assert, as I do 

 without any hesitation, that many Noblemen and 

 Gentlemen suffer their Hedge-row Timber to stand 

 much too long where is the admirer of the beau- 

 ties of landscape scenery, who will not instantly, 

 and perhaps indignantly, throw down my book, 

 and charge me with being the most presumptuous 

 of grumblers, and, as to taste, a very heretic ! 



If to such a charge as this I plead "not guilty," 

 as, after all that can be said, I really must do, 

 I am aware that I must be prepared with a very 

 strong defence. I think I am so prepared. My 

 defence will rest on three principal points, which 

 it will be my endeavour to bring out in the course 

 of my " Remarks : viz.: First ; I shall show that 

 the magnitude of the sacrifice which arises from 

 Hedge-row Timber being suffered to stand so long, 

 is disproportionate to the good resulting from it. 

 Secondly ; that the embellishment of a landscape 



