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In the dark, Middle Ages
If we trust to History’s pages
You might search the landscape round,
Not a hedge was to be found
Instead of little tidy squares
Mine, and his, and yours and theirs.
My field. his field, your field, their field,
All formed an enormous bare field.
How they knew without a hedge
How far any land extended.
Which was the middle, which was the edge.
Where the whole caboodle ended.
History that tells so much
About the French Wars and the Dutch
Never says a word to show.
I should also like to know.
In a land of hedge divested,
Where on earth the hedge sparrows nested,
And what did hedgehogs do about it?
Hedge for them meant home and name
What was their life like without it?
Were they simply – what a shame!
Hogs until their hedges came.
History, that talks so much
Of wars and dates and lists of kings
And stuffy constitutional things
Growth of Parliament and such,
Always somehow seems to miss
Interesting points like this.
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