iThe Small Rock-sGarden. 127 
trench or by a well-made and broad walk. Hedges 
take up less room than either of the above, but are 
open to similar objections, and are liable to prove 
snug harbour for innumerable snails. Moreover, 
they are also apt to look too much like nursery 
partitions, unless cut formally and embayed, and 
even then they dictate peremptorily very careful 
arrangement of the rockery both in plan and 
elevation to harmonise successfully with themselves, 
and thus hamper a freedom which it is of the first 
importance to preserve. 
When it is unavoidable to set hedges or shrubs 
closely adjacent to the rockery or in unbroken con- 
nection with its mounds, it will be found convenient 
to use the old-fashioned thick Cumberland slates that 
can often be obtained from their disuse on buildings, 
or other similar flags or slabs, to form a barrier 
throughout the depth of the intervening soil against 
the encroaching and hungry roots that are sure to 
seek entrance. 
In the small rockery limitations of space more 
frequently than not enforce a falling back upon the 
more artificial barriers of wood, brick, or stone. Half- 
trellised wood fences may sometimes be utilised in 
the provision. for shelter, but they are not well 
adapted for use in connection with rockwork, are 
expensive to erect and lacking in permanence, besides 
affording only partial protection. 
Boarded wood fences have much greater use- 
fulness and are much cheaper to put up, if not much 
more permanent; but they are far from sightly, and 
can only be regarded as makeshifts, however 
