LITTLE GADDESDEN. 315 



afterwards well covered over with the earth which has 

 been cast out of the ditch. When a perpendicular 

 line is erected from the row the lower planted shoots 

 stand in, it is seen that they stand i foot nearer the ditch 

 than the upper row, whence the slope of the bank 

 towards the ditch can be judged. 



The earth which is here cast out of the ditch, 

 and in which the hedge was planted, consisted of the 

 brick-colored earth which is found everywhere about 

 here, with some flint-sand and small flint stones among 

 it. On one side the ditch hindered the cattle from 

 getting at the newly-planted shoots to do them any 

 injury, and on the other there were set up, as it were, 

 ledstangar, railings, or also a dead fence, which some- 

 what resembled a gardes-gard, similarly to prevent the 

 cattle on that side also from approaching the young 

 trees. It is commonly in the month of October or 

 February that this work is carried out in England. At 

 a place between Little Gaddesden and St. Albans there 

 was a new hedge planted in the above-named way, but 

 to hinder the cattle from injuring the young shoots, 

 there were on the summit and along the bank set what 

 I may call ledstanger, railings. 



Down below the shoots there was a deep ditch dug, 

 partly for the same object, partly and principally to get 

 earth in which the shoots could be planted. On the 

 other side of the ditch opposite the hedge, close to the 

 edge of the ditch, there was a dead fence erected to 

 hinder the cattle and sheep from getting down into the 

 ditch to bite off the newly-planted shoots. 



In another place there were, with the same object, 

 erected hurdles exactly the same as are here used as folds 

 on the arable, and have been before described (p. 262 

 orig. 264 above). These were placed just at the edge of the 

 earth-bank [T. I. p. 312] in which the shoots were 



