8. But, above all the natural greens which inrich our home-born store, there is none certainly to be compar’d to the agrifolium, (or acuifolium rather) our holly so spontaneously growing here in this part of Surrey, that the large vale near my own dwelling, was anciently call’d Holmes-Dale; famous for the flight of the Danes: The inhabitants of great antiquity (in their manners, habits, speech) have a proverb, Holmes-Dale never won; he never shall. It had once a fort, call’d Homes-Dale Castle: I know not whether it might not be that of Rygate; but leaving this uncertain, and return to the plant, I have often wonder’d at our curiosity after foreign plants, and expensive difficulties, to the neglect of the culture of this vulgar, but incomparable tree; whether we will propagate it for use and defence, or for sight and ornament.
A hedge of holly, thieves that would invade,
Repulses like a growing palizade;
Whose numerous leaves such orient greens invest,
As in deep Winter do the Spring arrest.[301:1]
Which makes me wonder why it should be reckon’d among the unfortunate trees, by Macrobius, Sat. lib. III. cap. 20. others among the lucky; for so it seems they us’d to send branches of it, as well as of oak (the most fortunate, according to the Gentile theology) with their strenae (new-year’s gifts) begun (as Symachus tells us) by K. Tatius, almost as old as Rome her self.
But to say no more of these superstitious fopperies, which are many other about this tree, we still dress up both our churches and houses, on Christmas and other festival days, with this cheerful green and rutilant berries.
9. Is there under heaven a more glorious and refreshing object of the kind, than an impregnable hedge of about four hundred foot in length, nine foot high, and five in diameter; which I can shew in my now ruin’d gardens at Say’s-Court, (thanks to the Czar of Moscovy) at any time of the year, glitt’ring with its arm’d and varnish’d leaves? The taller standards at orderly distances, blushing with their natural coral: It mocks at the rudest assaults of the weather, beasts, or hedge-breakers,
Et illum nemo impunè lacessit.
It is with us of two eminent kinds, the prickly, and smoother leav’d; 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 naturae 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 fibers of the roots recover their natural food.
10. I have already shew’d how it is to be rais’d of the berries, (of which there is a sort bears them yellow, and propagate their colour) when they are ready to drop, this only omitted, that they would first be freed from their tenacious and glutinous mucilage by being wash’d, and a little bruised, then dry’d with a cloath; or else bury them as you do the yew and hipps; and let our 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’em northwards, as they do quick. Of this, might there living pales and enclosures be made, (such as the Right Honourable my Lord Dacres, somewhere in Sussex, has a park almost environ’d with, able to keep in any game, as I am credibly inform’d) and cut into square hedges, it becomes impenetrable, and will thrive in hottest, as well as the coldest places. I have seen hedges, or if you will, stout walls of holly, 20 foot in height, kept upright, and the gilded sort budded low, and in 2 or 3 places one above another, shorn and fashion’d into columns and pilasters, architectonially shap’d, and at due distance; than which nothing can possibly be more pleasant, the berry adorning the intercolumniations, with the scarlet festoons and encarpa. Of this noble tree one may take thousands of them four inches long, out of the woods (amongst the fall’n leaves whereof, they sow themselves) and so plant them; but this should be before the cattle begin to crop them, especially sheep, who are greedy of them when tender: Stick them into the ground in a moist season, Spring, or early Autumn; especially the Spring, shaded (if it prove too hot and scorching) till they begin to shoot of themselves, and in very sharp weather, and during our eastern etesians, cover’d with dry straw or haume; and if any of them seem to perish, cut it close, and you shall soon see it revive. Of these seedlings, and by this culture, I have rais’d plants and hedges full four foot high in four years: The lustier and bigger the sets are, the better, and if you can procure such as are a thumbs-breadth thick, they will soon furnish into an hedge. At Dengeness in Kent, they grow naturally amongst the very beach and pibbles; but if your ground be stiff, loosen it with a little fine gravel: This rare hedge (the boast of my villa) was planted upon a burning gravel, expos’d to the meridian sun; for it refuses not almost any sort of barren ground, hot or cold, and often indicates where coals are to be dug.
11. True it is, that time must bring this tree to perfection; it does so to all things else, & posteritati pangimus. But what if a little culture about the roots (not dunging, which it abhors) and frequent stirring of the mould, double its growth? We stay seven years for a tolerable quick, it is worth staying it thrice, for this, which has no competitor.
12. And yet there is an expedient to effect it more insensibly, by planting it with the quick: Let every fifth or sixth be an holly-set; they will grow up infallibly with your quick; and as they begin to spread, make way for them by extirpating the white-thorn, till they quite domineer: Thus was my hedge first planted, without the least interruption to the fence, by a most pleasant metamorphosis. But there is also another, not less applauded, by laying along well-rooted sets (a yard or more in length) and stripping off the leaves and branches, letting only something of the tops appear: These, cover’d with a competent depth of earth, will send forth innumerable suckers, which will suddenly advance into an hedge; and grows as well under the shade as sun, provided you keep them weeded, and now and then loosen the earth; towards which, if thro’ extream neglect, or other accident, it grow thin, being close cut down, it will fill and become stronger and thicker than ever.