10 



trol or disguise my abomination of fmze fences : if 

 trimmed they bec«me useless for fuel ; if strag-gling-^ 

 they are frightful — the very signs and tokens of bad 

 taste and neghgence. 



So much for your iield fences. I shall only now 

 add a hint or two about gates and garden enclosures. 

 How many fields are there in this county without a 

 proper way of getting into them or out of them ? Is 

 it not shameful to see whole farms, belonging, per- 

 haps, to men who could easily give one or two him- 

 dred poimds marriage portion with a favorite daugh- 

 ter, without a single field gate ? gaps thrown down, 

 gaps thrown up, or stopped with a cart (as need may 

 require,) half a dozen times in the year; and all 'this 

 trouble and expense to save five or six shillings I — 

 Besides, when, on the high road, a gap is levelled, 

 and the free course of water stopped, you run the 

 chance of being fined for injuring the road. Put this 

 into your account, along \vith the time lost in knock- 

 ing down and making up gaps every year, and you 

 will see that the balance is in favor of gates. As to 

 the enclosing of your kitchen-gardens, (for I am wil- 

 ling to think that you will all have them) I must 

 urge you to plant thickly round them: hollies, lau- 

 rels, and other evergreens, as well as timber-saUows, 

 &c. should here appear in abundance. A farm-house 

 without its proper appendage of garden, (and orchard 

 too) is a bleak, miserable looking thing. Above all, 

 you will particularly oblige me by having your gar- 

 dens in front of your houses, with your dunghills in 

 the rere, near the sheds where the cattle stand. 



