VII. 



' EAETH '-STOPPING. 



AMONGST the various changes upon the aspect of a 

 Farm necessitated by modern practice, there is none 

 which causes a greater degree of consternation in the 

 immediate vicinity than the removal of the Hedge- 

 rows. There is a kind of time-honoured recognition 

 and respect accorded to these huge ' mounds/ four or 

 five feet high, and broad in proportion, with the run- 

 ning accompaniment of jungle sprawling at its plea- 

 sure into the plough-land alongside, which it goes to 

 the very heart of the labourers themselves to desecrate, 

 or reduce to the regulation-standard. It is all very 

 well under the glowing candle-light, with the map of 

 your farm spread out before you, and its hedgerows 

 reduced to mere lines of sepia or lamp-black, to cut 

 and carve, at your will, ten or twelve large square 

 comely-looking fields out of thirty or forty unac- 



