CHAP, xx SYLVA 187 



renewed, and well guarded. We have been the 

 longer on these descriptions, because it is of main 

 importance, and that so few husband-men are so 

 perfectly skill'd in it : But he that would be more 

 fully satisfied, I would have to consult Mr. Cook, 

 chap. 32. or rather ins far omnium (and after all which 

 has been said of this useful art of fencing) what I 

 cannot without injury to the publick, and ingrati- 

 tude to the persons, (who do me the honour of 

 imparting to me their experiences) but as freely 

 communicate. 



It is then from the Reverend Mr. Walker of 

 Great-Billing near Northampton, that (with several 

 other particulars relating to our rural subject) I 

 likewise receive from that worthy gentleman Tho. 

 Franklin of Ecton, Esq ; the following method of 

 planting, and fencing with quick-sets ; which we give 

 you in his own words. 



10. ' About 10 or 12 years since, I made some 

 ' essays to set some little clumps of hedges and trees, 

 4 of about two pole in breadth, and three in length : 

 c The out-fences ditch'd on the outside, but the 

 * quick-sets in the inside of the bank, that the dead- 

 4 hedges might stand on the outside thereof ; so that 

 4 a small hedge of 18 or 20 inches high, made of 

 4 small wood, the stakes not much bigger than a 

 4 man's thumb, which (the banks being high) suffici- 

 4 ently defended them for four years time, and were 

 4 hedg'd with less than one load of shreadings of 

 4 willow-sets, which, (as my workmen told me) would 

 4 have requir'd 6 load of copp'ce-wood : But the next 

 4 year after their being planted, finding wast ground 

 4 on the top of the bank of the outer fence, between 

 4 the dead-hedge and the quick, I put a foot-set in 



