It seems to me that grammatically the “barriere de bois à planter dans le talus” are shading the “deux rangées de hêtres” rather than the opposite. Can someone help me understand the subject and object of the verb ombrager?
The subject is “deux rangées de hêtres” and the object “la barrière de bois”. It’s logical since “hêtre” are very high trees.
There are two reasons why “la barrière” can’t be the object : “ombrageaient” is plural. So the subject could either be “les talus” or “deux rangées de hêtres”. But there’s no doubt because of qu’ " : it can only be used for the relative “que”, which indicates the object. “Qui indicates” the action of the subject. So if “les talus” would have been the subject we would write: "par la barrière de bois plantée dans les talus qui ombrageaient deux rangées de hêtres (but that wouldn’t make any sense because the trees are necessarily higher than the “talus”. )
It can be confusing because it’s a long sentence in written French. We don’t speak like that 
Also be aware you’re reading a book written in the 19th century. French language has eveloved a lot since then and it won’t help you much understanding everyday French and having conversations.
Thank you so much. The use of ‘que’ as distinct from ‘qui’ was the ‘key’ that I overlooked!
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