Notes on England and France. 13 



when dry, and till late in winter ; or the Sorbus hyhridiis^ 

 or silver-leaved mountain ash, being very handsome, and 

 well furnished with branches, is also sometimes used ; 

 evergreen privet being at times combined with this, or with 

 the beech, to render the bottom more impervious and secure. 



The country of England, through which I passed, was 

 generally sub-divided by hedges ; it seemed a rolling coun- 

 try, with but few stones. These hedges being planted on 

 the edge of a dry ditch, are seldom pruned ; thus managed, 

 they occupy much ground ; yet though they have frequent 

 breaches, or weak parts, they seem to answer as an effect- 

 ual fence to the well-trained English cattle ; but I doubt 

 whether they would answer for ours, accustomed as ours 

 usually are, at an early age, to roam in the imderbrush 

 and woods. The only perfect and properly trained hedges 

 which I have ever seen, are those pruned in pyramidal 

 form ; thus pruned, and thus only, they retain their branches 

 to the ground, becomhig impervious to their base. 



Between London and Portsmouth are immense tracts of 

 low, barren lands, black and boggy, or wet, producing only 

 the heath, or other useless herbage, and extending in some 

 places as far as the eye can reach. From Wimbledon Com- 

 mon to Salisbury Plain, and for many miles further south, 

 I think I must have seen full 50,000 acres of barren or de- 

 serted lands, which I am persuaded might, with skill, be 

 reclaimed. In some parts the soil appeared shallow, resting 

 on chalk, or calcareous rocks. 



In all those countries, and also in the north of France, 

 and especially in the vicinity or suburbs of the cities of 

 London and Paris, vegetation commences earlier than with 

 us ; and it appeared to me that their fruits, their trees, and 

 most other vegetable productions, generally made much 

 greater growth during the whole season than is usual with 

 us. This I ascribe not to any natural superiority of soil, 

 or of climate, — ours being evidently far superior to theirs, — 

 but to the general system of higher cultivation, and of 

 deep tillage, which they pursue. By this system the roots 

 strike downwards deep into the soil, from whence alone 

 they are able to draw continual sources of nourishment in 

 times of drought. Yet from the comparative obscurity of 

 their atmosphere, and other causes, these droughts are, as 

 I understand, not near so frequent or so scorching as with us. 



Throughout those fertile districts of England and of 



