TREATMENT OF GROUND. FORMATION OF WALKS. 273 



become inhabitants of the country, than a display immedi- 

 ately 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 thousand times superior 

 to such a fence. But there is never one instance in a thous- 

 and 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 architecturalterrace 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 an elegant substitute for stone or 

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

 been hitherto more general. We have ourselves been mak- 

 ing 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 in this climate, 

 will, 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 three or four 

 generations. The common Arhor Vitce, (or flat Cedar,) 

 which grows in great abundance in many districts, forms 

 one of the most superb hedges, without the least care in 

 trimming ; the foliage growing thickly, down to the very 

 ground, and being evergreen, the hedge remains clothed the 

 whole year. Our common Thorns, and in particular those 

 known in the nurseries as the Newcastle and Washington 



35 



