FENCES, WALLS, AND SHELTERS. 



81 





six feet high, — five being an excellent 

 average, 



188. These observations upon fencing will 

 6e incomplete without a few remarks upon 

 gates. As a general rule, they must always 

 be in harmony with the character of the 

 fence. Occasionally, however, in pleasure- 

 grounds, where a rabbit-proof fence is hidden with shrubs, the gate spanning 

 the walk may be much better and more elegant than the fence. The most 

 beautiful gates I 

 have ever seen are 

 those in the gar- 

 dens at Hardwicke 

 House. A broad 

 gravel promenade, 

 in front of part of 

 the range of glass, 

 bounded on one 



side by a ribbon border, and on the other by a panelled wall, furnished 

 with vases on all the piers, is terminated at both ends by lofty iron gates of 

 chaste pattern and blue-and-gold colour. Three smaller pair and two large 

 gates, of similar colour and patterns, are used in different parts of the 

 grounds with excellent effect. Lodge or entrance-gates are most effective 

 in pairs. They should neither be too massive nor too light, — of sufficient 

 width to prevent anxiety about wheels or posts ; of elegant pattern, strong 

 construction, and a colour that can be easily discerned at night. Nothing 

 can equal, in ultimate economy, nor exceed in usefulness and beauty, a well- 

 raised, carefully-hung pair of wrought-iron gates, ten or twelve feet wide, 

 and painted a light stone-coloui*. D. T. F. 



189. The Garden Wall is as the setting to the gem ; without its inclosing 

 fence, it would be undistinguishable from the neighbouring fields, and its 

 contents exposed to the depredations of man and beast, as well as to the 

 "pitiless pelting" of every storm. But besides the protection it affords in 

 this sense, the properly-constructed garden wall has other important con- 

 servative duties. Dr. Wells, in his interesting experiments on the origin of 

 dew, found that a thermometer protected by a handkerchief sustained hori- 

 zontally over it, marked a temperature from four to six degrees higher than 

 the corresponding instrument placed in the open ground. The wall and its 

 ooping exercise a conservative power in px-eventing the radiation of beat in 

 the one case which the handkerchief exercises in the other. 



190. The wall performs another equally important office ; during the heat 

 of the day it absorbs the sun's rays in a ratio proportioned to its aspect and 

 inclination to the sun ; and, in common with all heated bodies, it radiates its 

 heat in a ratio proportioned to the square of its distance ; so that if an object 



a 



