IV. 

 THE DELIGHTS OF HEDGEROWS. 



HAT a delight and how rich a sub- 

 \k, ject of investigation is the smallest 

 bit of hedgerow ! To my joy, at 

 the bottom of my garden, separat- 

 ing it from the nearest wheat-field, is a beech hedge, 

 instead of any more effective enclosure in the shape of 

 fence or wall. I really would miss much in the interest 

 I have in this corner of mine were there a high wall 

 here in place of this hedge. The hedge, however thick, 

 is still but an airy screen or veil which half hides and 

 half reveals the life without and stimulates curiosity. 

 It is all living, breathing, constantly changing, if you 

 look well, and sounds like a wind-harp to the wind. 

 It refines the view beyond, and does not really inter- 

 rupt or close it ; and you can feel the pulse of life, as 

 it were, stirring in it. Birds pass through it almost 

 as free as the wind, weave their nests in it, and near-by 

 sit and discourse the sweetest music, morning, noon, 

 and eve. It does not shut off, but kindly encloses; 

 giving free let to all the sweeter winds, even refining 

 and scenting them, while it tames down and breaks the 

 force of the fiercer and colder winds, and takes the 

 sting from the frosts of winter. 



A volume might be written on hedgerows cultivated 



96 



