46 THE LAND'S END 



upon them. It was the longest of the old hedges I 

 found, beginning among the masses of granite on the 

 edge of the cliff, and winding away inland to lose 

 itself eventually among the rocks and gullies and 

 furze-thickets at the foot of a great boulder-strewn 

 hill. Its sinuosity struck me as a mark of extreme 

 age, as in this it resembled the huge prehistoric walls 

 or earthworks made of chalk on the downs in 

 Southern England, which meander in an extraordinary 

 way. It was also larger than the other hedges, which 

 crossed its winding course at all angles, being in most 

 parts six to seven feet high, and exceedingly broad ; 

 moreover, where the stones could be seen they ap- 

 peared to be more closely fitted together than in other 

 hedges. Most of the stonework was, however, pretty 

 well covered over, in some places with a very thick 

 turf, in others by furze and bracken, rooted in the 

 crevices and in places hiding the wall in a dense 

 thicket. 



But of all the plants growing on it the ivy was most 

 remarkable. It is not a plant that flourishes in this 

 district, where it has as hard a struggle as any tree to 

 maintain its existence. It is found only in sheltered 

 situations on this coast, in the villages, and on the 

 landward side of steep banks and large masses of rock. 

 On this old wall there was really no shelter, since the 

 furious blasts from the sea swept both sides of it with 

 the same violence. Yet in places the ivy had got pos- 

 session of it, but it was an ivy very much altered in 

 character by the unfavourable conditions from that 

 greenest luxuriant plant we know so well. In place of 



