24 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



shady garden seats, but it answers better our jiassing 

 purpose to observe that these are points at which natur- 

 alness is often lost, and w'hich, therefore, require careful 

 treatment and thoughtful good taste to adapt them quite 

 to the best interests of a whole, natural composition. 



Bad fences are worthy of separate mention. And 

 the first thing to be said is tliat practically all fences are 

 bad, considered merely as items in an art composition on 

 the natural jilan. Yet there are w^onderful degrees of 

 badness among fences. Good, well kept horticultural 

 hedges of privets, roses, spiraeas, diervillas, arbor vitses, 

 and other plants suitable for the special purposes in 

 view% are at least bearable, and are sometimes distinctly 

 satisfactor}^ A hedge may be continuous and yet irreg- 

 ular, broadening in one place, bending in another, and 

 further along merging into a larger group of trees and 

 shrubs. In this way it may serve the purposes of a 

 fence witliout marring the naturalness sought. But 

 what shall we say of the picket and great board 

 fences which embrace so many otherwise decent private 

 and public plots ? What shall we say to this frenzy of 

 iron work which stands between us and the grounds we 

 would so gladly admire ? Plainly naturalness is lost, — 

 utterly and irrecoverably lost. These fences serve a 

 purpose. They answer to a want keen and urgent in 

 the ordinary home-owner's heart ; that is, to the desire 

 for seclusion and privacy and the unmolested and unob- 

 served enjoyment of the owner's home surroundings. 

 This seclusion is worth striving for in the garden plan; 

 but if naturalness is desired, some other expedient ought 

 to be worked out compatible alike v/ith naturalness and 

 seclusiveness. It has sometimes been thought worth 

 while to sink the fences in deep ditches, the banks of 

 which were given special treatment to conceal the whole; 

 but this means will not commend itself to many opera- 

 tors ; neither is it adapted to many cases. 



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