THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE HEDGEROWS. 141 



them that are favoured with nests. Birds love seclusion 

 and concealment during the breeding season, and seek 

 only those localities where such can be found. It is of 

 little use to search the hedges between fields where high 

 farming prevails where the arable land or pasture goes 

 quite up to the division line we can scarcely call it a 

 hedgerow where the bank is levelled and every weed 

 and spray of brushwood is cleared away. These hedges 

 are little more than bare hurdles, the tall stems of the 

 bushes are cut nearly through near the root, then bent 

 downwards, and the long twigs twisted round, and in 

 and out into a cable-like band which is threaded between 

 stakes at intervals. Every rotten stump and superfluous 

 branch is lopped off, all the old moss and lichen-covered 

 branches are thinned out, all the undergrowth of grass 

 and weeds, and the drifts of dead leaves at the bottom, 

 even the trees and saplings all are swept ruthlessly 

 away. Such scientific hedges are shunned by the birds ; 

 they are too low and thin and bare for their requirements. 

 They love the old-fashioned hedgerows, on the farms 

 where no new-fangled notions prevail, and where the 

 banks and dykes below the hedges are masses of tall 

 weeds, bluebells, primroses, rank grass, briars and 

 brambles, and the hedges themselves are rarely if ever 

 lopped, but allowed to grow in uncurbed luxuriance. 

 The sapling oaks, and elms, and sycamores, are suffered 

 to grow in peace where the winds of heaven sow them, 



