304 S Y L V A BOOK ii 



you can procure such as are a thumbs-breadth thick, 

 they will soon furnish into an hedge. At Dengeness 

 in Kent, they grow naturally amongst the very beach 

 and pibbles ; but if your ground be stiff, loosen it 

 with a little fine gravel : This rare hedge (the boast 

 of my villa) was planted upon a burning gravel, 

 expos'd to the meridian sun ; for it refuses not almost 

 any sort of barren ground, hot or cold, and often 

 indicates where coals are to be dug. 



1 1 . True it is, that time must bring this tree to 

 perfection ; it does so to all things else, & posteritati 

 pangimus. But what if a little culture about the roots 

 (not dunging, which it abhors) and frequent stirring 

 of the mould, double its growth ? We stay seven 

 years for a tolerable quick, it is worth staying it 

 thrice, for this, which has no competitor. 



1 2. And yet there is an expedient to effect it more 

 insensibly, by planting it with the quick : Let every 

 fifth or sixth be an holly-set ; they will grow up 

 infallibly with your quick ; and as they begin to 

 spread, make way for them by extirpating the white- 

 thorn, till they quite domineer : Thus was my hedge 

 first planted, without the least interruption to the 

 fence, by a most pleasant metamorphosis. But there 

 is also another, not less applauded, by laying along 

 well-rooted sets (a yard or more in length) and 

 stripping off the leaves and branches, letting only 

 something of the tops appear : These, cover'd with a 

 competent depth of earth, will send forth innumer- 

 able suckers, which will suddenly advance into an 

 hedge ; and grows as well under the shade as sun, 

 provided you keep them weeded, and now and then 

 loosen the earth ; towards which, if thro' extream 

 neglect, or other accident, it grow thin, being close 



