HEDGE-ROW TIMBER. 107 



I to refer to any particular estate, and any other 

 references, however accurate in point of fact, would 

 not be sufficiently specific. I would rather 

 recommend any gentleman whose estate may be 

 pretty well covered with timber, already, or long 

 since, arrived at maturity, to make as near an 

 estimate as he can of its present value, or procure 

 it to be made ; and having calculated the amount 

 which would be exhibited of the gross sum at 

 compound interest, for any given term of years, 

 then let him "try back," and endeavour to ascer- 

 tain what, according to this mode of calculation, 

 may have been his individual loss. But when a 

 gentleman coolly makes up his mind to allow his 

 Timber Trees to go to decay without ever intend- 

 ing, or wishing, to make any thing of them, why 

 then, in that case, nothing can be advanced, but 

 to suggest the means of protracting their existence 

 to the longest possible period. 



It is impossible not to do homage to the feeling 

 which prompts a gentleman to make so large a 

 sacrifice to taste, as to suffer the greater part of 

 his Hedge-row and detached Timber to perish by 

 slow decay ; but if it can be proved that he acts 



