GATES AND FENCES FOR GARDEN AND PARK. 



Destruction 

 of fences 

 on new 

 property 

 condemned. 



The ha-ha 

 fence. 



FIG. 49. 



The almost infinite variety of trees from which hedges may be grown, makes their 

 inclusion in every part of the domain quite appropriate. They are however more con- 

 veniently dealt with in the chapter devoted to formal and clipped trees, and it will be 

 sufficient here to protest against the somewhat unaccountable custom of demolishing all 

 internal fences on new property. Of course if a tall and prominent hedge cuts like a 

 knife right across the prospect, destroying the composition of the views and competing with 

 the onward sweep of a vista, it must be 

 removed and something less obtrusive put in 

 its place, but in most cases there can ^ be no 

 more mistaken policy than the removal of the 

 hedges on new estates in the attempt to gain 

 breadth. Unless the area under treatment is 

 most exceptionally fortunate in the amount and disposition of its timber trees, the 

 result will be not breadth but desolation and that sense of barren newness which it is the 

 aim of the Landscape Architect to avoid at all times. The features which impart local 

 character to a district are entirely destroyed, and instead we have an expanse of wind- 

 swept land without protection for stock in stormy weather or shade in heat. Far better 

 would it be to wait until the newly-formed plantations have more or less matured, when 

 the gradual rearrangement of the fences may be undertaken without even temporary 

 disfigurement of the estate. 



Estate owners are not usually averse to walls or hedges to screen them from the 

 public highways and yet they fail to see the equal necessity for a definite line of de- 

 marcation between portions of the estate serving different and even aesthetically 

 incompatible purposes. It was as a result of this dislike of internal fences, that the ha-ha 

 or invisible sunk wall came to be invented, the idea of which was usually to make a 

 large meadow look as though it were part of the garden, instead of which it usually 

 resulted in making the house appear to be placed down in the middle of a field without 

 either protection or privacy. As already stated, there are exceptional cases where the 

 ha-ha may be employed with success, but generally speaking it is to be avoided. From 

 the very fact that it partakes of the nature of an extremely obvious trick on the senses 

 which is almost immediately discovered, it cannot be permanently pleasing, especially 

 in those numerous cases where it degenerates into an untidy ditch. In most instances 

 it gives the impression of presenting a very poor excuse for unwarrantably curtailing the 

 extent of the gardens, and is a silent confession that the grounds should have extended 

 further than they do into the meadow and that a trick has been resorted to, to hide their 



meagre area. Again, a fence 

 which makes it appear as 

 though the cattle in the 

 meadow could come right up 

 to the windows of the house 

 or walk over the flower 

 beds cannot be satisfactory. 

 It will often be found too 

 that the ha-ha has proved 

 insufficient to prevent intrusions and has been supplemented by untidy wire contrivances 

 which have entirely defeated its original purpose, and there have been cases where short- 

 sighted persons have walked over the edge of the hidden wall and fallen into the ditch. 

 To sum up, the same principle should apply to fences as to everything else in a 

 garden. Instead of being a sham or a make-believe all the garden appointments should 

 honestly express their functions, and their artistic qualities should be inherent and not 

 superimposed. In every case the purpose or purposes of the fence should be recognized, 



FIG. 50. 



