NEIGHBORING IMPROVEMENTS. 
61 
all who take part in the exchange, and makes no man poorer. 
As a merely business matter it is simply stupid to shut out, 
voluntarily, a pleasant lookout through a neighbor’s ornamental 
grounds. If, on the other hand, such opportunities are improved, 
and made the most of, no gentleman would hesitate to make 
return for the privilege by arranging his own ground so as to 
give the neighbor equally pleasing vistas into or across it. It 
is unchristian to hedge from the sight of others the beauties of 
nature which it has been our good fortune to create or secure; 
and all the walls, high fences, hedge screens and belts of trees 
and shrubbery which are used for that purpose only, are so many 
means by which we show how unchristian and unneighborly we 
can be. It is true these things are not usually done in any 
mere spirit of selfishness : they are the conventional forms of 
planting that come down to us from feudal times, or that were 
necessary in gardens near cities, and in close proximity to populous 
neighborhoods with rude improvements and ruder people. It is a 
peculiarity of English gardens, which it is as unfortunate to follow 
as it would be to imitate the surly self-assertion of English travel¬ 
ling-manners. An English garden is “ a love of a place ” to get 
into, and an Englishman’s heart is warm and hospitable at his own 
fire-side ; but these facts do not make it less uncivil to bristle in 
strangers’ company, or to wall and hedge a lovely garden against 
the longing eyes of the outside world. To hedge out deformities 
is well ; but to narrow our own or our neighbor’s views of the free 
graces of Nature by our own volition, is quite another thing. We 
have seen high arbor-vitas hedges between the decorated front 
grounds of members of the same family, each of whose places was 
well kept, and necessary to complete the beauty of the other and 
to secure to both extensive prospects ! It seems as if such persons 
wish to advertise to every passer, “my lot begins here, sir, and 
ends there, sir,” and might be unhappy if the dividing lines were 
not accurately known. “ High fences make good neighbors,” is a 
saying often repeated by persons about walling themselves in. 
The saying has some foundation in fact. Vinegar and soda, both 
good in their way, are better kept in separate vessels. If a man 
believes himself and his family to be bad neighbors, certainly they 
