JANUARY 6 1 



hedge-trimming. I was talking yesterday to Buck, my milkman, at 

 the All Hallows Farm — where I keep nearly half my cows — who, 

 as is the custom with such men when not milking or attending to 

 the cattle, is employed on odd jobs about the land. He was 

 trimming the fence of the back lawn, which ever since I have had 

 the farm in hand has been kept neatly clipped with shears, and 

 took the opportunity to remark that in another twenty years there 

 would not be a hedge left alive in this country. I asked him why ; 

 to which he answered that farmers have entirely given up the old 

 custom that was in force when he was a boy, of cutting the thorns 

 off right down by the roots and ' ditching ' the crown of the fence 

 by coating it with mud out of the hoU. He informed me that in 

 the old days it was usual for a provision to be inserted in leases 

 enforcing this custom. 



But nowadays we have no leases, and, if we had, the face of 

 the farmer who was asked to bind himself to keep his fences in a 

 particular way, or indeed to do anything except to follow his own 

 sweet will, would probably be a study. I can remember when it was 

 the custom of my father's tenants at Bradenham at the other side of 

 Norfolk to cart all the coals required for the use of the Hall, and 

 I think— but of this I am not sure — to provide a certain amount 

 of straw gratis. Within the last fifteen years, even, tenants have 

 carted gravel for me here ; but these old customs are dying out, 

 more's the pity. It is a pity not only because the landlords have 

 lost the advantage of what was a convenience to them, but also for 

 the reason that one of the bonds of good feeling induced by the 

 ungrudging performance of a neighbourly service has been broken 

 away. As regards the hedges, I am inclined to think that Buck 

 is too pessimistic in alleging that they will all die. I have, 

 however, myself observed that hawthorns have a natural tendency 

 to get thin at the bottom, however much they may be trimmed at 

 the top, no doubt because their nature is to grow into trees and 

 not into bushes. 



I noticed to-day while walking over the new pasture by the 

 stackyard, No. 6 on plan, that the suckling is already thick in 



