Temporary Fences, and Management. 133 



connected together by a rail, also with the bark on, within 

 a foot or 18 in. of the top, form one of the cheapest and best 

 temporary barriers, and one which can only be surpassed by 

 hurdles, or by a light iron fence. 



But the evils of hedges or walls, as temporary fences, in the 

 district alluded to, are greatly aggravated by the manner of 

 managing the trees within, and by the outline or ground plan 

 of the plantation. The outline is not sufficiently varied of 

 itself, and the clump or mass is most frequently isolated, and 

 unconnected with any thing else. The outline of the belt is 

 generally not less formal than that of the clumps ; and what 

 we particularly object to in both is, that they are crowded 

 with trees, so as to present one lumpish opaque mass of foliage, 

 without any appearance of trunks or branches. The trees 

 enclosed ought not only to be thinned every year from the 

 time of planting, as they advance in size, but those left ought 

 to stand in groups, leaving large blank spaces within the fence, 

 covered only with grass, or with furze, ferns, or such like low 

 growths. This would lessen the deformity of clumps, or belts, 

 with formal outlines, whether of hedges or walls; but with 

 suitably varied outlines much less trouble would be necessary 

 in breaking the masses into groups, and none, or very few, 

 naked spaces need be left within the enclosure. Fences of 

 pales, laid out in irregular lines, with the trees within grouped, 

 but not crowded, the trees retiring from the fence when recesses 

 occur in its line, and boldly advancing to it when the line 

 stands forward, the trees every where so thin as to show their 

 trunks, arms, and branches, will never produce a disagreeable 

 effect ; on the contrary, the apparent cooperation of purpose 

 between the fence and the trees will be felt as a species of 

 positive beauty. Judging from what is almost every where 

 met with in the west of Scotland, however, there is very little 

 feeling for any kind of beauty connected with park scenery. 

 We ought to except Munches, Closeburn, and perhaps some 

 parts of St. Mary's Isle: but who could tolerate the hedged 

 clumps, and lumpish unconnected masses of thick heavy plant- 

 ation, in the otherwise fine park at Cally ? What has been 

 done at Munches evinces the greatest judgment ; and, indeed, 

 we met no man in Scotland so entirely of our own mind, in 

 matters of taste, as the Reverend Mr. Carruthers of Dalbeattie, 

 by whose assistance Munches was laid out. 



If the same money which has been spent in planting hedges, 

 and clipping them afterwards, had been laid out in trenching 

 the ground previously to its being planted, and in thinning 

 out the trees in due time ; instead of clumps and belts of the 

 most offensive formality, in many cases so crowded with trees 



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