By Joseph Sabine, Esq, 



191 



of that adjoining the Melon ground, which is only annually 

 simply pruned), are regularly clipped in each* year, in April; 

 the work occupying the time of five labourers about three 

 weeks. The hedges are kept with an even exterior, and con- 

 tracted towards the top. They are carefully protected from 

 the bite of cattle, and especially from sheep, which are very 

 fond of the bark, shoots, and young leaves of the Holly. 

 They are planted on raised banks, which in most cases are 

 kept dry by ditches on one or both sides. The soil in 

 which the most vigorous growth is apparent, is a deep light 

 loam. The plants do not grow so luxuriantly when it is 

 either sand or clay, and less well when it is moist with a 

 retentive subsoil. The object of the banks and ditches here 

 noticed, was to keep the roots dry and well drained. 



There are several single Hollies of fine dimensions, growing 

 mixed with other trees of considerable magnitude, near the 

 Mansion-house at Tynningham ; the largest of these mea- 

 sures five feet three inches in circumference at three feet 

 from the ground ; the stem is clear of branches to fourteen 

 feet high, and the total height of the tree is fifty-four feet. 

 In Binning Wood are also some very fine specimens of 

 Hollies ; the most singular of these has a girth at three feet 

 from the ground, of seven feet three inches, after which it 

 divides into two large branches, and attains the height of 

 forty-six feet. 



The Holly hedges at Colinton House, the seat of Sir 

 William Forbes, about three miles south-west of Edin- 

 burgh, though not of equal extent to those o*f Tynningham, 

 exceed them in size as well as age. They form part of the 

 outer boundaries of two nearly contiguous, almost square 



