CHAP, xx SYLVA 183 



some have laid these hedges, by the rural way of 

 plashing, better than by clipping; yet may both be 

 used for ornament, as where they are planted about 

 our garden-fences, and fields near the mansion. In 

 Scotland, by tying the young shoots with bands of 

 hay, they make the stems grow so very close together, 

 as that it encloseth rabbets in warrens instead of pales: 

 And for this robust use we shall prefer the black- 

 thorn; the extravagant suckers which are apt to rise 

 at distance from the hedge-line, being sedulously 

 extirpated, that the rest may grow the stronger and 

 thicker. 



9. And now since I did mention it, and that most 

 I find do greatly affect the vulgar way of quicking 

 (that this our discourse be in nothing deficient) we 

 will in brief give it you again after George Markham's 

 description, because it is the best, and most accurate, 

 although much resembling our former direction, of 

 which it seems but a repetition, 'till he comes to the 

 plashing. In a ground which is more dry than wet 

 (for watry places it abhors) plant your quick thus: 

 Let the first row of sets be placed in a trench of about 

 half a foot deep, even with the top of your ditch, in 

 somewhat a sloping, or inclining posture; then, 

 having rais'd your bank near a foot upon them, plant 

 another row, so as their tops may just peep out over 

 the middle of the spaces of your first row: These 

 cover'd again to the height or thickness of the other, 

 place a third rank opposite to the first, and then 

 finish your bank to its intended height. The dis- 

 tances of the plants would not be above one foot; 

 and the season to do the work in, may be from the 

 entry of February, till the end of March; or else in 

 September to the beginning of December. When 



