Hedgerows and Hedgebanks 61 



The available food-supply was thus brought under control, grazing cattle were 

 given shade and protection from storm and cold, while the small farmer was no 

 longer penalized to the advantage of the larger owner on the common land. 

 The tree-material, again, furnished a local supply of small fuel, near at home, 

 and compensated the disappearing woodland. 



On the other hand, hedges entail considerable skilled work in construction 

 and maintenance. The original use of a thorn-fence of ' quicksetts ', implied 

 cutting, trimming, and interlacing to a typical fence of 4 ft. in height (impene- 

 trable by cattle), which has had much to do with the evolution of steeplechasing 

 and hunting in central England. 1 



Even a thorn-fence requires careful attention. Though the Hawthorn is 

 the most enduring tree of the countryside, it cannot be cut indefinitely. When 

 pruned to a neat and constant form by ' removing the spray ' of annual shoots, 

 the plants will deteriorate in time. Hence they soon require to be left to grow 

 out for a season or two to recover vigour. If this happens to be neglected, the 

 plants grow to bushes, with admixture of intrusives which may soon become 

 dominants. Deteriorating still further, the thorns are cut back to stumps, with 

 a rough rotation of 10 years or so; the hacked and split stools make an 

 indifferent recovery, and the majority of hedges of this class are now mere 

 wrecks, or in any case, something quite different from what they were originally 

 intended to be. 2 



As pasture-land thus devoted to stock again becomes utilized as arable, 

 hedges tend to disappear, being valueless except as wind-breaks in exposed 

 situations, and the fields may be delimited by wire fences. But the more recent 

 application of barbed wire is the limit. 3 



When allowed to vegetate quite freely, the thorns attain a height of 

 20-25 ft, affording a canopy as many feet wide. A rank growth follows in 

 the drip of the end-branches, which then becomes the limit of the field-area, 

 whether pasture or arable. Coarse grasses, nettles, brambles, and briars 

 grow up to meet the canopy of the thorn, giving a continuous mass of foliage 

 as a screen to the ground-level ; and this as the hedge-base affords a station 

 for a wide range of herbaceous forms, graded according to their height 

 and the distance to free light-supply. Hook-climbers and tendril-climbers 

 interweave in the mass, or clothe the upper levels. Within the more shaded 

 central tract, vegetation is checked and may wholly disappear, giving a 

 tunnel-effect, with the original thorn-trunks in the middle line, as a run for 

 dogs and small boys. Gaps in the outer canopy of brambles and thicket 

 allow cattle to utilize the tunnel-portion for shade and shelter. Large trees 

 allowed to persist as standards, especially the Common Elm, as intrusives, 

 less frequently Oaks stag-headed at the brushwood level, afford a dense 

 canopy, ultimately suppressing the thorns, and leaving gaps in the fence. 



1 The neat professional thorn hedge, trimmed 4ft. high, and interlaced obliquely (plashed), 

 affords little scope for intermixture with intrusives until it is badly neglected, and allowed to grow 

 out. A county instructor in hedging is now employed by the County Council. 



2 The most interesting trimmed hedge locally is the remains of the ancient thorn fences bound- 

 ing the path raised above flood-level between Wytham and Godstow. Double hedges of thorns 

 planted 5 ft. apart, and more or less neglected, give a peculiar tunnel-like construction in meadows 

 above Wolvercote. Thorn fences of Bagley Wood date to about 1840, those bounding the Railway 

 Line to about 1 850. Such hedges, once carefully kept, are seen in all stages of neglect and decay 

 in the fields absorbed within the urban area (Cowley), reducing to a single line of residual standard 

 thorns (25 ft.), these then more and more isolated, or left as stumps against which cattle rub. 



3 Barbed Wire, a product of the evolution of the Western cattle ranches of America, has been 

 manufactured since 1874. The initial cost is comparatively small, and it is practically indestructible 

 if the supports are also of steel or of reinforced concrete. Cattle avoid it, and it solves the weed- 

 problem of the hedges. It is also almost invisible in the landscape, but it affords no shelter from 

 wind or sun. Legal restrictions so far (1893) apply only to the possibility of damage to persons or 

 cattle lawfully using the highways. But the country walk of the future tends to be restricted to 

 a straight and narrow gangway between two lines of barbed wire (cf. path from Headington to 

 Shotover Hill). A graceful finish is given by tacking a strand over the top of any gate at which one 

 might wish to stop to admire what is left of the view. 



