House and Garden 
American mind. 
Only a churl would 
conceal his gilly¬ 
flowers and asters 
behind impenetrable 
walls. Village Im¬ 
provement Societies 
preached thecrusade 
against the fence. 
And so came in the 
cannas and begonias 
and round geranium 
beds scattered here 
and there over the 
open lawns, and one 
by one the dainty 
old fences were con¬ 
demned as unsightly 
and went theirway 
to the wood-pile. 
Now that the re¬ 
action has set in, 
and once more our 
grounds are being 
protected against 
stray dogs and child¬ 
ren, and the old an¬ 
nuals and perennials 
are with us again, a 
rapid glance through 
two or three old 
Eastern seaports 
will serve to remind 
us, not only of the 
importance of a 
fence in giving a 
sense of privacy, but 
of its decorative im- 
portance and its 
great value as set¬ 
ting or frame for the 
architecture of the 
house itself. 
In some of the 
most beautiful ex¬ 
amples of Colonial 
architecture in old 
New England towns, 
227 
EMMERTON FENCE—SALEM 
GARDEN WALK—SALEM 
