228 NEW ENGLAND FENCES 



as it is sometimes called from the slight resem- 

 blance of its zig-zag line to the course of a serpent, 

 or the Virginia fence, perhaps because the Old 

 Dominion was the mother of it as of presidents, 

 but more likely for no better reason than that the 

 common deer is named the Virginia deer, or that 

 no end of quadrupeds and birds and plants, having 

 their home as much in the United States as in the 

 British Provinces, bear the title of Canodensis. But 

 rail, snake, or Virginia, at any rate it is truly 

 American, and probably has enclosed and does yet 

 enclose more acres of our land than any other fence. 

 But one seldom sees nowadays a new rail fence, or 

 rather a fence of new rails, and we shall never have 

 another wise and kindly railsplitter to rule over us; 

 and no more new pine rails, shining like gold in 

 the sun, and spicing the ah* with their terebmthine 

 perfume. The noble pine has become too rare 

 and valuable to be put to such base use. One may 

 catch the white gleam of a new ash rail, or short- 

 lived bass-wood, among the gray of the original 

 fence, a patch of new stuff in the old garment, 

 but not often the sheen of a whole fence of such 

 freshly riven material. Some one has called the 

 rail fence ugly or hideous. Truly, it must be con- 

 fessed, the newly laid rail fence is not a thing of 

 beauty, any more than is any other new thing that 

 is fashioned by man and intended to stand out of 

 doors. The most tastefully modeled house looks 



