56 
A splendid example of a Colonial fence to be used in 
connection with a house of 18th Century New England 
or Charlestonian tendencies; both sturdy and graceful 
House Garden 
This fence from Longfellow’s house in Cambridge, 
Mass., shows an interesting diagonal design, with a 
nicely made rail, and a panel below of solid planking 
WHEN YOU PLAN' YOUR GARDEN 
Fences of One Type or Another Will Be Found 'To Be Both 
Attractive and Durable as Enclosures 
RICHARD H. PRATT 
I T is a curious notion that fences are 
unsociable. Yet it is becoming more and 
more obvious that this type of barrier, by 
far the most democratic and decorative of 
enclosures, is gradually disappearing from 
our gardens and small suburban places. 
It is a funny notion. And it seems all 
the funnier when it is held by the same folks 
who plant their privet sprouts and fledgling 
poplars around their gardens and along 
their property lines. Of course, there is 
nothing unneighborly about putting in 
rows of plants when they are tiny and 
ineffectual. You can’t help it if they grow 
up into impenetrable hedges. But all at 
once to build a fence, that is different. 
Perhaps, after all, it is a mistake to say 
that fences are not being built as they 
once were simply because they are coming 
to be regarded as unsociable. Maybe they 
are going out of fashion. Maybe the picture 
they made along the elm-arched streets of 
old New England, and in Colonial Charles¬ 
ton, and the grace and variety with which 
they surrounded the gardens of the Eastern 
Shore of Maryland, at Washington’s Mt. 
Vernon, and in Virginia, are things which 
people are unattracted to nowadays. 
In either case fences are the victims of 
false prejudice. As a matter of fact, they 
can be beautiful, efficient, and inexpensive. 
In the matter of appearance there is no 
end to the attractive designs to which 
{Continued on page 94) 
An effective solution of the hillside 
fence whose stepped sections are 
joined by a bit of curved rail 
Showing that something at once interesting and artistic can be 
done with that sometimes deservedly despised type of construction 
known asrustic ” work 
When a fence need not be a complete barrier against small 
animals more latitude may be allowed, as here, in the decorative 
arrangement of the braces 
