212 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



My first object in revisiting Herrings well was 

 to look up its fir hedges, a form of barrier and 

 wind shield very unusual elsewhere, so much so 

 that I have not yet come across anyone to tell 

 me how to make them of the most suitable 

 material — spruce. Properly treated, they are 

 most useful and ornamental. No others act so 

 perfectly as a green wall ; these are far more 

 substantial than yew (mostly a hollow sham), 

 grow very quickly, are easily trimmed on their 

 faces, and after each annual cutting give first a 

 pretty display of aromatic cream-coloured buds, 

 from which shortly come early shoots, delicate 

 in their greenery, a delight to the eye in their 

 cool tone, and a strong barrier in their interlaced 

 face of little feathery branches. The Scotch, of 

 which are many, are always a trifle on the gloomy 

 side, with so much dead wood and matted 

 dropped spines about their lower parts, but still, 

 planted two feet only apart and kept lopped, form 

 a capital barrier. Being neglected for a while 

 they grow out of all order, and into fantastic, 

 eerie shapes, yet are mighty exasperating if you 

 want to get to their other side, because you 

 can't squeeze through. As I could get no 

 casual information anywhere on the manu- 

 facture of spruce hedges, I applied to a gentle- 

 man who owns particularly fine ones, and he 

 most kindly explained. You let your young 

 firs grow till they average as high as you 

 want your hedge. Then that year you just 

 take the top shoot off each, and next year you 

 begin to clip them. One essential in keeping 

 a green hedge thick and well foliaged all the 

 way down — viz., slanting each face, when clip- 

 ping, outwards towards the base — the natural 



