beat around the bush vs sit on the fence

beat around the bush

verb
  • To treat a topic, but omit its main points, often intentionally. 

  • To delay or avoid talking about something difficult or unpleasant. 

sit on the fence

verb
  • To remain neutral on a certain topic, to not have a stance or opinion. 

How often have the words beat around the bush and sit on the fence occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )