By John Spencer j Esq. 



319 



rural subjects; thus Varro terms a hedge a "natural living 

 guardian." Columella speaking of a living fence, prefers it to 

 a constructed, or dead hedge.- Virgil 1 writes that a good hedge 

 should be woven — or in plain English, pleached or plashed and 

 laid in as you see done at the present day — and asks also 



" Quid raajora sequar ? salices, humilesque genistce, 

 Aut illse pecori frondera, aut pastoribus umbras 

 Suffieiunt; sepemque satis, et pabula melli." 2 



Hedges being found useful in "Rome, that sensible people we may 

 take for granted would introduce them to their colonies, and although 

 I have failed in meeting with any record of this having been done 

 in Britain, we may conclude that such was the case, the more 

 confidently as we ktfow they introduced nearly all the fruits and 

 trees of Italy during their occupation of the country ; and that 

 they would protect their vineyards and orchards by some kind of 

 living fence is more than probable, as well as special enclosures 

 surrounding their stations and villas. 



But whatever may have been the extent of hedges as a means 

 of protection planted by the Romans while they held possession of 

 Britain, it is not difficult to understand that after their departure 

 all traces of such would be partially if not wholly destroyed or 

 left to nature, through the internal feuds which raged among the 

 petty kings and chiefs who succeeded the Roman government, and 

 the struggles they had in resisting on all sides their enemies — 

 more especially the North German tribes, who in the end became 

 their masters. It is to these latter, comprising the Jutes, Angles, 

 and Saxons — branches of the great Teutonic family occupying 

 nearly the whole of Germany and a large area in France, and 

 finally settling in England — that we owe our present system of 

 hedge rows. 



Guizot, in his "Histoire de la Civilization," informs us that the 

 political organization of all the branches of the Teutonic race was 

 essentially the same, and he states that in their appropriation of 

 conquered land the "King-lord" (who was generally elected) 

 taking first a large share for himself, distributed the remainder 

 1 Georgic: ii., 371—2. 2 Georgic: ii., 434—6. 



