259 



ENGLISH HEDGEROWS. 



A. H. PAWSON, J. P., F.L.S., F.G.S., 



President Yorkshire Xatiirnlists' L nion. 



I WISH to sing- the praises of the English hedgerows. We 

 islanders are rather apt (whether rightly or not let others judge) 

 to speak of our own ways and institutions and belongings (and 

 this not boastfully but as a matter of common knowledge) as 

 of something superior and apart, hardly to be attained by the 

 other nations, and then only by w^ay of imitation. I have heard 

 it maintained, for instance, that we are the only people that 

 have homes and family life : the sea of course we hold in fee 

 simple, and the oak is not willingly allowed to be native in 

 other lands. In order not to come short of others in this praise- 

 worthy patriotism I w^ill now chaunt the eulogy of the hedges 

 which enclose our green fields and our pasturing cattle, and 

 I can do it honestly and truthfully, for, as far as my own 

 observation extends, they form a landscape which is peculiar to 

 our island. 



England is naturally pastoral, and it is becoming more so. 

 Its verdure is the quality of it which most attracts a foreigner. 

 The land is fitted for flocks and herds : it is the paradise of 

 ruminating animals and will grow profitably all grasses except 

 bamboos and the cereals — a country in short of beef and not of 

 bread. Thus the modesty rather than the veracity of those 

 people is to be impugned who bring forward the roast beef 

 of Old England in proof of the supremacy of our country to the 

 humiliation of the foreigner. 



The real corn countries, as the uplands of Sicily and Spain 

 (I speak only of what I have seen), present a pitiable appearance 

 when the crop is off the ground — and it is reaped in July. Then, 

 a tawny wilderness lies about you which produces no herbs that 

 will fatten a sheep or pasture a milking-cow. Only goats can 

 pick a meagre livelihood out of the grey-green shrubs and 

 make-believe grasses. There you drink your coffee black. 

 Olive oil takes the place of butter, or, if you must needs be 

 superfine, you may have it in air-tight tins all the way from 

 Denmark. Such a land has no need of fences ; there are no 

 grazing animals to enclose, for you may as easily fence in a 

 squirrel as a goat. 



The primary use of hedges, for shelter and as fences against 

 cattle, is obvious, but I am disposed to maintain that our hedge- 



1904 September 1. 



