THE HEDGEROWS OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 
5i) 
hedges round their meadows and pastures. There was a demand for 
young “ Quick,” and nurseries were started for the production of it. 
Fifty or sixty years later, when the Flemish method of husbandry 
began to be adopted in this country, cornfields also were inclosed with 
quickset* hedges, and the demand gradually increased till in the 18th 
century the production of Quick became a large and lucrative trade. 
Now, that nearly all the land in the country is fenced in, the demand 
has fallen off again. 
The first hawthorn hedges in Scotland were planted by Cromwell’s 
soldiers. At the present time quickset hedges are used throughout 
the United Kingdom, except in some parts of Ireland and the Highlands 
of Scotland, and in small isolated tracts where stone is more available^ 
as on our Charnwood Forest, and the Peak of Derbyshire. 
From this sketch of the history of hedgerows it may be inferred 
that while a few of those existing in this county may be very ancient, 
dating back to Norman, or Danish, or even Roman times, the great 
majority are not more than 200 years old. The longevity of a hedge¬ 
row is very great. I know of some which are very little altered from 
what they were as I remember them fifty years ago, and of others 
whose history can be distinctly traced back for more than 100 years. 
In this county there cannot be less than 15,000 miles of Hedgerows, 
occuping at least 7,500 acres of land, which at a value of only £50 an 
acre represents a capital of a third of a million lying dead. But 
against this there is the value of the timber trees, which, at the low 
average of ten to a mile, would be 150,000 trees. In some counties, as 
in Devon, the fields are much smaller on an average than in Leicester¬ 
shire, and the proportion of land occupied by hedges would probably 
be twice as great. It has been estimated at over a million acres in 
England and Wales, but this appears to me too high a figure. 
The variety of shrubs of which* our Leicestershire hedges are 
made up is very considerable, although Hawthorn forms probably 
90 or 95 per cent, of the total. The remaining 5 or 10 per cent, 
consists of Sloe, Bullace, Crab, Maple, Elder, Privet, Elm, Hazel, 
Sallow, Ash, Yew, Buckthorn, Oak, Holly, Dogwood, Sycamore, 
Beech, Hornbeam, Guelder-rose, Barberry, Gorse and probably a 
few others in out-of-the-way districts. Some of these have been 
purposely planted, others seem to have sprung up spontaneously from 
the scattering of indigenous seed. Those which came up in the open 
fields would be destroyed, while those in the hedges would be spared. 
A further list of climbing and trailing shrubs such as Ivy, Bramble, 
Dog-rose, Hop, Clematis, and Woodbine fillup some gaps and add their 
contribution of beauty, if not of utility, to the hedgerow ; but these 
can scarcely be considered as part and parcel of the fence. 
There is a good deal of Blackthorn or Sloe in our older hedges, but 
where this has been planted recently the larger and quicker growing 
form, known as the Bullace {Prunus insititia), seems to have been 
* Quick means live, and a quickset hedge is one set with live thorns. 
