WEST DEVONSHIRE. 65 



rable, tends ftill more to the impoverifli- 

 ment of the lands that are robbed of it. 



IV. FENCES. Nothing marks the 

 rural management of this extremity of the 

 Illand more ftrongly, than the construc- 

 tion of its farm fences. 



The bank or foundation of a Devonfhire 

 *' hedp-e" is a mound of earth, eidit, ten, 

 or more feet wide, at the bafe, and fome- 

 times nearly as much in height ; narrowing 

 to fix, feven, or more feet wide, at the top ; 

 which is covered with coppice woods, as 

 Oak, Afli, Sallow, Birch, Hazel. Thefe 

 are cut, as coppice \^ood, at fifteen or 

 twenty years growth, and at more, perhaps, 

 than twenty feet high, befide the height of 

 the mound; together forming a barrier, 

 perhaps thirty feet in height. 



A ftranger, unaware of this practice, 

 conliders himfelf as travelling perpetually 

 in deep hollow ways -, paffing on, for miles, 

 perhaps, without being able to fee out of 

 them ; though the mofl: delightful fcenery 

 may have accompanied him. 



Vol. I. F The 



