4I& PICTURESQUE IMPROVEMENT. BOOK I, 



when mosses, weathers tains, or any such picturesque appen- 

 dages begin to appear; or with the scythe and paring-irons 

 divesting their edges of the intricacy which vegetation, during 

 a slight relief from his operations, has a continual tendency to 

 produce. 



Fences are sometimes useful in picturesque scenery, on the 

 same principles as roads ; that is, to give spirit and variety : as 

 in walls or park pales varied by recesses and bushes, or open 

 rustic paling partially concealed by trees, or inequalities of 

 ground. But they are chiefly requisite for harmonizing or 

 uniting landscape; and in this case they are concealed as much 

 as possible. Of unseen fences there are various kinds, from the 

 slender wire painted of what is called invisible green, which 

 serves to exclude sheep, to the formidable sunk fence, which 

 when six or eight feet deep, and twelve or fifteen wide, is a 

 barrier to every species of animals kept in this country. The 

 slender wire fence may be increased in strength and height so 

 as to exclude deer ; in which case it may frequently be appli- 

 cable to level lawns, as at Trentham. An open iron rail may 

 sometimes be used for the same purpose in like cases, as at 

 Donnington. An excavation, with a rail at the bottom or on 

 one side, may be used in varied or irregular ground, or when 

 at some distance from the mansion, as at Esher and numberless 

 places ; and the well-known sunk fence, or ha ! ha ! may be 



