CHAPTER IV 

 OLD CORNISH HEDGES 



Hedges in England Plant and animal life Stone hedges in Corn- 

 wall Effect of wind on trees How hedges are made Appear- 

 ance of stone hedges An ancient hedge Woody ivy Signs of 

 antiquity An old man's testimony. 



EVERY one in England knows what a hedge 

 is a row of thorn or other hardy bushes 

 originally planted to protect a field, which, 

 when old and unkept, has the appearance and 

 character of a brake or thicket. It consequently 

 comes as a surprise when we first visit the remote and 

 most un-English county of Cornwall to discover that 

 a hedge there may mean something quite different. It 

 puzzled me to read in a book on Cornwall that in 

 some exceedingly rough places near the coast one 

 found it easier to make one's way over the ground by 

 climbing on to a hedge and walking along its top. 



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