GATES AND BARRIERS 



A whiz-view from a car window gives a slight idea of the possible 

 variety, as one can easily schedule one hundred or more different 

 styles in a day, from the upturned stump, riven criss-cross rail and 

 rough bouldered wall of the pioneer to the productions of famous 

 architects. 



Hedges range from the shrub and tree deciduous as seen in 

 privet and copper beech to evergreens, from arbor vitae to Norway 

 spruce and hemlock, and there is a complete alphabet of form and 

 color in shrub, tree, stone, brick, tile, bronze, wire, cast and wrought 

 iron, and cement with various combinations thereof, as well as turf 

 and shrub-topped walls, their crevices filled with plants, and the 

 whole backed by luxurious vernal growth. The finicky cobble stone 

 and big boulder, the rarely beautiful yet inexpensive rough, open- 

 jointed broken ashler, with plants growing in and over it and vines 

 climbing along its sides and scrambling atop even a line of half 

 buried single stones all make good boundaries. A wall containing 

 many small stones can be lined off (with or without lamp black) to 

 give a solid front by the use of a liberal quantity of cement. Building 

 barriers more than head high, so that the passer-by sees but a black 

 streak of hard and dusty road imprisoned between high walls, is a 

 selfish attempt to shut off the uplifting view of an earthly paradise. 

 In the parking of narrow village lots one realizes the true democracy 

 of country living, "all for each and each for all," as seen in views 

 'cross lawns and gardens for a half dozen blocks or more, under 

 some conditions necessarily restricted, yet but slightly marred by 

 vine-draped wire fences. 



Huge privet posts squared and trimmed as true as blocks of 

 granite or sheared into pointed or globe-topped pedestals, for eight 

 months are living masses of green. 



Barriers are well worth best thought, also the gates that pierce 

 them, whether but an iron chain, riveted and hooked into single 

 rough boulders, a lofty bronze grilled, lantern-centred gateway, one 

 of the most effective forms of entrance, or a stone arch beneath the 

 conning tower of a Norman castle. None of the belongings of a 

 dwelling more forcibly herald to would-be despoilers or trespassers 

 ownership and possession than gates and barriers. 



