VII PALISADES, GROVES i6i 



Palisades or pole -hedges were high hedges 

 formed of trees — such as lime, elm, or horn- 

 beam. These were usually of great length and 

 height, and the point to be aimed at was to 

 keep them entirely smooth and even, making, as 

 it were, a great wall of green tapestry, " all the 

 beauty of which consists in being well filled up 

 from the very bottom, of no great thickness, 

 and handsomely clipped on both sides as per- 

 pendicularly as possible." Where the palisades 

 had to be very high the stems of the trees were 

 kept bare of branches, and the intervals up to 

 the level of the lowest branch planted with yew 

 or box trimmed to form a solid screen. At 

 Brick wall there is a palisade of lime-trees along 

 one side of the garden. The branches are 

 trained and trimmed to form a continuous 

 curtain, starting about lo feet from the ground, 

 and behind the trees is an old red-brick wall 

 up to the level of the boughs. A palisade of 

 this sort is delightful in colour, and easily kept 

 in shape if properly pleached ; and in this 

 respect it is more satisfactory than very great 

 walls of yew, which are apt to lose their 

 symmetry and become obese and corpulent as 

 soon as they have reached maturity. Evelyn 

 particularly commends the hornbeam. " Being 

 planted in small fosses or trenches, at half-a- 

 foot interval and in the single row, it makes 

 the noblest and stateliest hedge for long walks 

 in gardens or parks . . . because it grows 



