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CHAPTER VI.

Of Fences —The Foundary—The Separation—Example fromSheffield Place — Fence to Plantations only temporary —The double Gate — Lines of Fences—of Roads—of Walks —of Rivers —all different.

Th at the boundary fence of a place should be concealed fromthe house, is among the few general principles admitted inmodern gardening; hut even in this instance, want of precisionhas led to error; the necessary distinction is seldom madebetween the fence which incloses a park, and those fences whichare adapted to separate and protect the subdivisions withinsuch inclosure. For the concealment of the boundary variousmethods have been adopted, on which I shall make someobservations.

1. A plantation is certainly the best expedient for hiding thepales; but in some cases it will also hide more than is required.And in all cases, if a plantation surround a place in the mannercommonly practised under the name of a belt, it becomes aboundary scarce less offensive than the pale itself. The mindfeels a certain disgust under a sense of confinement in anysituation, however beautiful, as Dr. Johnson has forcibly illus-trated in describing the feeling of Rasselas , in the happy valleyof Abyssinia.

2. A second method of concealing a fence is, by making it