70 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



carry their veneration of the " prescriptive rights " of hedges, 

 as well as many other ancient rights and usages of other 

 kinds, relating to things, as well as persons. In some of the 

 counties, the hedges occupy almost, or quite one quarter of 

 the arable lands : a source of perpetual annoyance and incon- 

 venience, as well as loss to the proprietors and tenants of the 

 estates, who are as loyal in their veneration for them, as for 

 church and crown themselves. Thanks to a more enlight- 

 ened policy, the days of these thickly interlacing hedges are 

 becoming numbered. Thousands of miles of them have 

 been grubbed up and thrown out, the fields obstructed by 

 thoir presence made straight, and their waste places become 

 smooth. Our author, although deeply imbued with a fine 

 taste and a love of the beautiful in nature, which, indeed, 

 should not be neglected in the right place, treats the subject 

 like a man of sense, and a philosopher. The hedges of 

 England, in a profitable view, are, in the extent to which 

 they exist, a curse both to tenant and proprietor, in the 

 innumerable vermin they harbor, in the tempation they offer 

 to idlers who seek them in pursuit of game, and in the 

 damage to their crops by the depredations of all. 



The idea of the map of the farm is valuable. Every 

 farmer should have an accurate map of his estate, in which 

 every field with its particular soil is laid down, the area 

 ascertained, and boundaries denned. The convenience of 

 such a map to one who has once had the benefit of it, will be 

 admitted, and its necessity, oven, apparent. If. in such a map, 

 the topography of the land could bo shown, it would add to 

 its valuo. Many an otherwise listless hour, under shelter or 

 by the fireside, could bo spent in studying its surface, and in 



