OF THE COUNTY OF DOWN. 57 



mountainous parts, is the dry-ftone wall ; this, though 

 a very unfightly fence, and, from the manner in which 

 it is made, requiring, in common with the other, con- 

 tinual repair, has this merit at leaft, that, in making it, 

 the ground is cleared of part of its encumbrance, and 

 that it ftands upon a very fmall furface j befides, it is 

 moflly found in places, not only where ftones abound 

 in the foil, but where the rock, being but a little way 

 under the ground, makes finking difficult, if not im- 

 prafticable. Notwithftanding this general cenfure on 

 the mode of inclofing, there is not any country where 

 the art of raifing hedges is better underflood, and 

 more completely carried into execution, than it is here 

 by numerous individuals, both gentlemen and farmers ; 

 and it is rather a matter of furprife, that their example 

 does not more generally influence their neighbours. 

 The additional expence of quicks is a mere trifle, when 

 compared with the utility and beauty of the practice; 

 its advantages need not to be dwelt on, they are appa- 

 rent to every eye, in the fecurity they afford to the 

 crops, the protection they impart to the grafs from the 

 withering blafls of the early months, and the ornament 

 the"y beftow on the face of the country. If landlords 

 were to make it a condition, on the renewal of leafes, 

 that all hedges between farms fhould be made n'.-vv^ 

 and planted with white-thorn quicks and trees of af- 

 ferent kinds, the banks well backed up, fo as to protect 

 them from cattle, it would, in a courfe of time, and 

 I that 



