COMMON HOLLY. 41 



holly hedges which, under proper treatment, became fences 

 in as short a time as one of hawthorn, privet, or almost 

 any other sort of hedge plant would have done. In all 

 such cases, however, great care was taken in the removal 

 of the plants, and the previous preparation of the soil ; 

 and when the annual growth of the Holly is considered, 

 (the leading shoots, under favourable circumstances seldom 

 falling short of eight or ten inches,) it may easily be sup- 

 posed that a few years would suffice to make a good fence, 

 where every care had been taken in the selection and pro- 

 per insertion of the plants. 



Under the old system of gardening, and disposition of 

 pleasure grounds, the Holly was much more extensively used 

 as a hedge plant than it is at the present day. Evelyn, 

 in his Sylva, speaks with honest pride and rapture of his 

 impregnable hedge at Say's Court, four hundred feet in 

 length, nine feet high, and five feet in diameter, " the 

 taller standards at orderly distances blushing with their 

 natural coral : it mocks (he adds) the rudest assaults of the 

 weather, beasts, or hedge-breakers. 1, 



et ilium nemo impune lacessit. 



In Scotland, the most celebrated holly hedges are those 

 at Tynyngham, the seat of the Earl of Haddington ; those 

 at Oollington House ; and those at Morton, near Edin- 

 burgh. At the place first named there are two thousand 

 nine hundred and fifty-two yards of holly hedges, most of 

 them planted about one hundred and twenty-seven years 

 ago. In height they vary from ten to twenty-five feet, 

 and are from nine to thirteen feet in width at the base. 

 They are regularly clipped every April, and are pro- 

 tected from cattle and other injury, by a ditch on either 

 side. 



