WAY-SIDE HINTS 



take full charge of the half-mile of highroad 

 leading through farm lands of my own, guar- 

 anteeing a more serviceable condition than the 

 road has yet known, and a diminution of cost 

 to the town of at least twenty per cent., yet the 

 proposition is ignored. The officials would 

 lose their little private jobbing in way of re- 

 pairs, and some future board might annul any 

 such disorderly and unheard of contracts. 



I have alluded to the planting of trees along 

 high-ways — a practice which many towns 

 have favored by public action, and one con- 

 tributing largely to the enjoyment of a sum- 

 mer's drive, as well as adding to the inviting 

 aspect of our country villages. The same 

 practice obtains along the great public high- 

 ways of France, but not so generally in Eng- 

 land where the sunshine is not so common or 

 so fierce as to call for special protection. Even 

 the country houses of Great Britain are by no 

 means so shaded as our own; and the most 

 considerable piles of buildings, such as Eaton 

 Hall, Blenheim, Dalkeith, and Burghley 

 House, have hardly a noticeable tree within 

 stone's throw of their walls. The flower 

 patches, and coppices of shrubbery approach 

 more nearly, and to the garden fronts of those 

 magnificent homes you walk through walls of 



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