28 PROVOCATIONS OF A BAD FENCE. 



and making the bark to the touch of the hand what 

 the under part of a stirrup is to the foot. And 

 whilst your patience is thus under the claws of the 

 cat, that of your goodwife is submitted to the teeth 

 of the rabbit. The early cauliflowers were expected 

 for a particular occasion; but the munching tribe, 

 popping out and in at will, have not left a green 

 blade. You have a Ribston pippin on your best 

 wall, and every flower-bud is nibbled as neatly off 

 by the hares in the night time as if great industry 

 and a sharp knife had been employed all the day. 

 It may be some consolation, that though they have 

 taken the buds, you have still the branch; and 

 there is no saying what may happen to the hares 

 before another winter; but look to your espaliers, 

 and you will have no occasion to congratulate your- 

 self on the exemption of the fruit-bearing wood. 

 It is near the extremities that the crop is most 

 abundant, and these also are the portions that the 

 hare makes choice of to eat entirely, whilst the 

 wood, otherwise garbled, contracts a disposition to 

 canker. The lowest branch, lying most convenient 

 to the teeth, suffers the furthest process of gnawing; 

 the next a degree less; and the third, not so access- 

 sible, is truncated only as far as the bite is easy; 

 so that the tree is mere vacuity where the fruit clus- 

 ters should abound; and the branches, instead of 

 maintaining their destined parallelism, are reduced 

 in figure to the transverse section of a Dutch ship, 

 I might tell of a remedy for this wasteful sight, 

 but rather withold it, lest, in mastering the hare 



