FOREST-TREES. 185 



I MUST not here omit taking notice of a very wrong, though 

 prevaiUng cuftom, which is, clipping thefe hedges the beginning 

 of winter. This has various ill effe(fts, as it not only robs them 

 of their beauty and verdure in that gloomy feafon, by cutting 

 away the frelh tender flioots, and mangling the leaves, but like- 

 ways expofes the naked hearts of the plants to all the rigour of 

 the florms, unprotedled as they are of their natural cloathing. 

 Let this, therefore, never be performed later in the feafon than 

 July, after which the young flioots will again flicker the inward 

 parts before the fevere weather comes on. 



Any defcription I am capable of giving in praife of Holly 

 hedges, will fall infinitely fliort of the imprefllons every man 

 of tafl:e muft: conceive, who fliall fee old fences of them that 

 have been properly trained. Sorry I am, I cannot gratify the 

 public in many examples of this kind ; but happily there is one 

 in Scotland that will jufliify the highefl; encomiums of the 

 ablefl: writer on that fubjecfl, which is to be feen at Tyn- 

 ningham, in the county of Eafl:-Lotliian, the feat of the Right 

 Honourable the Earl of Hadinton, and to a view of them I ap- 

 peal, as the clearefl; evidence of the incomparable beauty, laft- 

 ing flirength, and magnificence of Holly hedges : But how much 

 nobler an appearance this plant will make (landing unconftrain- 

 ed by fhears, detached and at freedom in the woods, loaded as 

 they annually are with berries, (which clipping prevents), is 

 eafy to imagine. Thefe hedges were planted by the late Earl of 

 Hadinton, the greateft, mofl: knowing, and moil fuccefsful plan- 

 ter of his time, and who, to all appearance, from a very poor 

 and unpromifing foil, expofed to, and clofe upon the great Ger- 

 man ocean, has raifed very extenfive and floiuifliing plantations 

 of the moft valuable Forefl-trees. What I have faid on the 



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