OF FOREST-TREES. 273 



Is there under heaven a more glorious and refreshing object of the cH. XXL 

 kind, than an impregnable hedge of about four hundred feet in length, '"^^V^-' 

 nine feet high, and five in diameter, which I can show in my now ruined 

 gardens at Say's Court, (thanks to the Czar of Muscovy %) at any time 

 of the year, glittering with its armed and varnished leaves ? The taller 

 standards at orderly distances, blushing with their natural coral : It 

 mocks the rudest assaults of the weather, beasts, or hedge-breakers, 



Et ilium nemo irapune lacessit. 



It is with us of two eminent kinds, the prickly and smoother-leaved ; or, 

 as some term it, the Free Holly, not unwelcome, when tender, to sheep 

 and other cattle. There is also of the White-berried, and a Golden and 

 Silver, variegated in six or seven differences, which proceeds from no 

 difference in the species, but accidentally, and naturee lusu, as most 

 such variegations do : since we are taught how to effect it artificially, 

 namely, by sowing the seeds, and planting in gravelly soil mixed with 

 store of chalk, and pressing it hard down ; it being certain that they 

 return to their native colour when sown in richer mould, and that all the 

 fibres of the roots recover their natural food. 



I have already shown how it is to be raised of the berries, (of which 

 there is a sort bears them yellow, and propagates their colour,) when they 

 are ready to drop : this only omitted, that they should first be freed from 

 their tenacious and glutinous mucilage, by being washed, and a little 

 bruised, then dried with a cloth, or else bury them as you do the Yew 

 and Hips : and let the forester receive this for no common secret, and 

 take notice of the effect. If you will sow them in the berry, keep them 

 in dry sand till March, remove them also after three or four years ; but 

 if you plant the sets, (which is likewise a commendable way, and the 

 woods will furnish enough,) place them northwards, as they do Quick : 

 With this, living pales and enclosures may be made, and when cut 

 into square hedges, it becomes an impenetrable fence that will thrive 

 in the hottest as well as the coldest places. The Right Honourable my 

 Lord Dacres, as I am credibly informed, has a park somewhere in Sussex, 



* The czar Peter the Great resided at Mr. Evelyn's house, in order that he might be neaif 

 the yard at Deptford during his stay in England. 



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