STRUCTURES IN LANDSCAPE 207 



structures finds a very close relative in the rock garden of naturalistic 

 design * and indeed in many interesting examples one merges into the 

 other by almost imperceptible degrees. Even in this case, however, the 

 general rule is likely to hold that it is better to have the work either 

 recognizably a structure or recognizably an attempted suggestion of 

 natural beauty. 



Some walls are built on New England farm land, for instance 

 from the stones obtained by clearing the land, primarily to separate 

 one field from another and with no thought of appearance except as a 

 workmanlike job. When they have been toned by the weather and 

 overgrown with bushes and vines, they blend so thoroughly with the 

 landscape that we come to look upon them almost as parts of the free 

 landscape rather than as architectural structures. (See Plate 9.)f 

 A similar effect of "naturalness" is produced by the New England 

 post-and-rail fence and by the "snake" fence of Virginia. 



A fence may be, like a wall, a solid screen of any height that the Fences, 

 designer chooses. Fences built of vertical boards fastened close to- ^, at ^, cfSi 

 gether to horizontal stringers which are upheld by vertical posts are 

 those most commonly used in this way. In their large relations, they 

 are subject to many of the same considerations as are walls, and they 

 may be treated with a cap and base molding like a wall ; but on ac- 

 count of the method of their construction it is often better to recognize 

 the posts and panels by some variation in the top line, by some differ- 

 ence in the construction and spacing of the boarding, and to depend 

 for further interest of texture on the repeated vertical lines of boards 

 and interstices. More commonly, the construction of a fence is such 

 that, although it serves as a definite boundary, still the view passes 

 through it. Sometimes it is desirable that the area on the other side 

 should be thus seen or guessed at through the substance of the fence. 

 More often a planting immediately behind the fence furnishes the 

 solidity which the fence lacks. In either case the effect of the fence 

 itself will be largely dependent upon the pattern which it makes against 

 the distance or the background of planting. 



Growing from the reasonable and ordinary mode of constructing 



* Cf. Chapter VIII, p. 143. 



t Cf. Chapter V, New England Bushy Pasture character, p. 68. 



