396 MISCHIEF ARISING 



thing, to observe every ash tree in a hedge reduced 

 to stumps by successive pollardings. Many a land- 

 lord would shudder at the thought of breaking up 

 an old productive sward, and not regard the topping 

 of an ash ; whereas this latter act is infinitely more 

 injurious, ultimately, than the former. The land 

 may, and will probably, recover, but the tree is 

 lost for ever, as to any profitable purposes for the 

 owner. The farmer might perhaps tell the agent 

 when he remonstrated, that he must have firewood, 

 and hedging stuff; but the wants of the former 

 have decreased by the facility of obtaining other 

 fuel, and neither is to be supplied by the landlord 

 at such a ruinous subversion of present and future 

 benefit. I am not so silly as to enlarge upon the 

 beauty of what has been called " picturesque farm- 

 ing ;" but when we cast our eyes over the country, 

 and see such rows of dark, club-headed posts, we 

 cannot but remark upon the unsightly character they 

 present, and consider it neither laudable to deform 

 our beautiful country by the connivance, nor proper 

 attention to individual profit to allow the continua- 

 tion of it. The ash, after this mutilation, in a few 

 years becomes flattened at the summit, moisture 

 lodges in it, and decay commences, the central 

 parts gradually mouldering away, though for many 

 years the sap wood will throw out vigorous shoots 

 for the hatchet. The goat moth now too com- 

 mences its mordications, and the end is not distant. 



