Treatment of Ground 97 



Nothing is more common, in the places of cockneys who 

 become inhabitants of the country, than a display imme- 

 diately around the dwelling of a spruce paling of carpentry, 

 neatly made, and painted white or green; an abomination 

 among the fresh fields, of which no person of taste could 

 be guilty. To fence off a small plot around a fine house, 

 in the midst of a lawn of fifty acres, is a perversity which 

 we could never reconcile, with even the lowest perception 

 of beauty.* An old stone wall covered with creepers and 

 climbing plants, may become a picturesque barrier a thou- 

 sand times superior to such a fence. But there is never one 

 instance in a thousand where any barrier is necessary. 

 Where it is desirable to separate the house from the level 

 grass of the lawn, let it be done by an architectural terrace 

 of stone, or a raised platform of gravel supported by turf, 

 which will confer importance and dignity upon the building, 

 instead of giving it a petty and trifling expression. 



Verdant hedges are elegant substitutes for stone or wooden 

 fences, and we are surprised that their use has not been 

 hitherto more general. We have ourselves been making 

 experiments for the last ten years with various hedge- 

 plants, and have succeeded in obtaining some hedges which 

 are now highly admired. Five or six years will, in this 

 climate, under proper care, be sufficient to produce hedges 

 of great beauty, capable of withstanding the attacks of 

 every kind of cattle; barriers, too, which will outlast many 

 generations. The common Arbor Vitse, which grows in 

 great abundance in many districts, forms one of the most 

 superb hedges, without the least care in trimming; f the 

 foliage growing thickly dow^n to the very ground, and being 

 evergreen, the hedge remains clothed the whole year. Our 

 common thorns form hedges of great strength and beauty. 

 They are indeed much better adapted to this climate than 



' Picket fences about farm and village dwellings were formerly con- 

 sidered very stylish, but are now quite out of vogue. There was a lime, 

 of course, when fences were necessary for protection from vagrant cattle, 

 and the practice grew into custom from this necessity. -- F. A. W. 



f It is much better when trimmed annually in June. -- F. A. W. 



