ROCKS. 29 



unaccompanied by the melancholy that attends us on 

 surveying a wide scene of ruins. Here the appearance 

 of desolation is sufficient to produce a sentiment of grand- 

 eur ; but while surrounded by the evidences appearing 

 in a distant view of a fertile and prosperous country, we 

 are equally affected with a sense of cheerful exaltation. 

 The most beautiful garden that wealth and taste could 

 design would not afford so much of the luxury of senti- 

 ment as a ramble over these bald hills affords to one 

 whose mind is rightly attuned for such enjoyments. It 

 is evident that the hills without the rocks would be des- 

 titute of one of their most charming features. From the 

 sight of the rocks comes likewise that feeling of alliance 

 with the past ages of the world which tends greatly to 

 elevate the mind with sentiments of grandeur. 



The New England stone-wall, as a feature in landscape 

 scenery, is generally considered a deformity ; yet it can- 

 not be denied that the same lines of wooden fence would 

 mar the beauty of our prospect in a still greater degree. 

 On account of the loose manner in which the stones are 

 laid one upon another, as well as the character of the 

 materials, this wall harmonizes with the rude aspects of 

 nature better than any kind of masonry. It seems to me 

 less of a deformity than a trimmed hedge or any other 

 kind of a fence, except in ornamented grounds, of which 

 I do not treat. In wild pastures and lands devoted t<> 

 common rustic labor, the stone-wall is the most pictu- 

 resque boundary-mark that has }^et been invented. A 

 trimmed hedge in such places would present to the eye 

 an intolerable formality. 



One of the charms of the loose stone-wall is the mani- 

 fest ease with which it may be overleaped. It menaces 

 no infringement upon our liberty. When we look abroad 

 upon the face of a country subdivided only by long lines 

 of loose stones, and overgrown by vines and shrubbery, 



