LITTLE GADDESDEN. 3T3 



former times have been chalk, or vice versd ? May not the 

 chalk sometimes, perhaps, change first to Hurlock and 

 afterwards to Freestone or vice versa ? " *] 



The nth April, 1748. 

 Huru en ny hack anlagges. 



How a new fence is laid down. 



When anyone wishes to erect an entirely new hedge 

 of living trees, either round arable fields, meadows, or 

 other property, it is done here in Hertfordshire, where 

 folk are held to be most expert in the art, in the following 

 manner : — 



The hedge is planted generally in lined rectd. If the 

 ground is free from trees and stubs, a pair of furrows 

 are ploughed straight on, where the new hedge is to be 

 planted. These furrows are turned towards each other, 

 but if the ground is full of tree-roots, so that the plough 

 cannot advance, the earth is commonly dug up with the 

 spade. Some use not to dig up anything on the place 

 they wish to plant, but are content with the mould they 

 cast up out of the ditch. When the earth has thus been 

 ploughed or dug up where the hedge is to be planted, a 

 ditch is dug along and close beside the same, which 

 ditch, after all the earth has been cast up out of it, is 

 commonly 2 or 3 feet deep below the surface of the 

 ground. This mould, which is taken out of the ditch, 

 is cast on to the ploughed-up, or dug-up, earth, at first 

 as much as to make a bank of 1 foot high or a little 

 more. Thereupon, young shoots of hawthorn or sloe 



* In answer to the questions which I have enclosed in brackets : — 

 The Totternhoe Stone, * marly sandstone, might be called a develop- 

 ment of the Grey chalk, but that it lies at its base, above which the sandy 

 element disappears. The answer to the latter questions is negative. They 

 are separate beds. [J. L.] 



