NEIGHBORING IMPROVEMENTS. 61 



all who take part in the exchange, and makes no man poorer. 

 As a merely business matter it is simply stupid to shut out, 

 voluntarily, a pleasant lookout through a neighbor's ornamental 

 grounds. If, on the other hand, such opportunities are improved, 

 and made the most of, no gentleman would hesitate to make 

 return for the privilege by arranging his own ground so as to 

 give the neighbor equally pleasing vistas into or across it. It 

 is unchristian to hedge from the sight of others the beauties of 

 nature which it has been our good fortune to create or secure ; 

 and all the walls, high fences, hedge screens and belts of trees 

 and shrubbery which are used for that purpose only, are so many 

 means by which we show how unchristian and unneighborly we 

 can be. It is true these things are not usually done in any 

 mere spirit of selfishness : they are the conventional forms of 

 planting that come down to us from feudal times, or that were 

 necessary in gardens near cities, and in close proximity to populous 

 neighborhoods with rude improvements and ruder people. It is a 

 peculiarity of English gardens, which it is as unfortunate to follow 

 as it would be to imitate the surly self-assertion of English travel- 

 ling-manners. An English garden is " a love of a place " to get 

 into, and an Englishman's heart is warm and hospitable at his own 

 fire-side ; but these facts do not make it less uncivil to bristle in 

 strangers' company, or to wall and hedge a lovely garden against 

 the longing eyes of the outside world. To hedge out deformities 

 is well ; but to narrow our own or our neighbor's views of the free 

 graces of Nature by our own volition, is quite another thing. We 

 have seen high arbor-vitae hedges between the decorated front 

 grounds of members of the same family, each of whose places was 

 well kept, and necessary to complete the beauty of the other and 

 to secure to both extensive prospects ! It seems as if such persons 

 wish to advertise to every passer, "my lot begins here, sir, and 

 ends there, sir," and might be unhappy if the dividing lines were 

 not accurately known. " High fences make good neighbors," is a 

 saying often repeated by persons about walling themselves in. 

 The saying has some foundation in fact. Vinegar and soda, both 

 good in their way, are better kept in separate vessels. If a man 

 believes himself and his family to be bad neighbors, certainly they 



