1 86 TREATISE on 



hedges at Tynninghain will not, I hope, be deemed a digreffion 

 from my fubje(fl;; tho' probably it may, that I would here hmn- 

 bly recommend to the prefent Earl, the proprietor, that, as an ex- 

 ample to this and future ages, he would pleafe allow, at leaft fome 

 part of thefe hedges (which at prefent I think are not lofty in 

 proportion to their thicknefs and ftrength) to run up to twenty- 

 five or thirty feet in height ; cut thinner and thinner as they ap- 

 proach the top, which in a few years would make them the moft 

 glorious fight of the kind that can be conceived, and this may 

 be done without in the fmalleft degree impairing their ftrength. 



The great variety of variegated Hollies for the wildernefs or 

 Evergreen garden, are likeways all highly worthy our attention, 

 not clip'd or reduced to any exa(5l form, but, after having been 

 properly pruned, to increafe their ftature, growing in their na- 

 tural luxuriancy of branches and fruit. The variegation , of trees 

 in general, no doubt proceeds from fome weaknefs or difeafe ; 

 they are commonly dwarfifh, and .when planted in ftrong land, 

 lofe much of their beauty, and often turn plain : But in the 

 Holly it is quite otherways ; they grow to a large fize, and the 

 moft generous foil does not in the leaft diminifh the mixture of 

 their colours, but makes them more brilliant ; fo that the various 

 kinds of them, difpofed with good tafte, afford, at all feafons of 

 the year, a gay and refrefhing entertainment. 



Th ere have been many direcftions given, with much folemnlty 

 and affurance of fuccefs, for variegating Hollies from their feeds, 

 all which that I ever read or heard of, with many experiments 

 CI my own, I have tried ineffectually ; from whence I can fafely 

 conclude, they are all quackiili impolitions, and that, to make 



