THE MANSE GARDEN. 15 



meant that the holly is the only tree that will grow 

 in the shade, or that nothing else should be planted 

 as underwood : privet, common laurel, and some 

 others, may aid the variety ; but the holly must be 

 your sheet-anchor. Every one of the fir tribes may 

 have a place at the first, serving early to give a clothed 

 appearance ; but still it is the holly, always improving 

 as all other things decline, which alone can make 

 the progress of shelter keep pace with the progress 

 of time. 



To censure the success of a design so interesting, 

 as well as to make its advantages more generally 

 available, it will be proper to offer a few remarks 

 both as to the first formation of a sheltering strip, 

 and the amending of one which, having been reared 

 in the common way, has become next to useless. 



Choose your ground where shelter is most needed, 

 whether for the house or garden, arid trench it well ; 

 but do not trench too sorely on the glebe, lest eco- 

 nomy, afterwards more observant, should regret the 

 extravagance. A quarter of an acre, well shaped 

 and situated, will do a great deal, considering that 

 the plan already specified is contrived to make much 

 shelter of little space. Let it be fenced outside 

 by a sunk stone wall, of three or four feet, with a 

 hedge on the top a hedge of thorns, if the soil is 

 indifferent, and the situation much exposed ; in more 

 favourable circumstances, by all means, let the hedge 

 be of holly. Before planting, manure the ground 

 with lime and dung, which will be repaid by excellent 

 crops of potatoes for a few years, and in the mean 

 time your trees will vie with one another, making 

 shoots of four or five feet in a season. If the hedge 



