The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Fences

The Hampshire Squeezer, or V, was just another useful type of pedestrian gateway, for foot paths and between fields. It was a straying calf that was the main nigger in the wood pile.

"I'M SITTING on the stile, Mary, where we sat side by side—"

The lower drawing wouldn't lend itself to courting too well, what with the separating pole barrier and the barbed wire. However it is a good example of an economical stile, taking but little room and being simple in construction.

Like the upper one, it was more comfortable for crossing with pails or other loads, such as someone in your arms.

THE wood fence stile herewith could scarcely be any more simple or primitive. Yet it appears sturdy and effective. The flat stone on the ground added a little to its appearance and made for solid rather than muddy footing in the wet English season. Strange, these customs of England, permitting common right of way.

What a fair, bonnie, timeless stone fence stile is the lower one. Look at the size of those boulders. One can just picture the moorland figure in the swinging plaid kilt making its way through the gloaming, with a skirl from the pipes echoing in the woodland and the glen.

SUCH a beautiful and time-worn stile in the upper illustration. Everything about it bespeaks solidarity, and strength, and quiet timelessness. How odd and staunch are the metal straps banding over and bolted to the stout tree trunk which serves as the fence's upper member.

And what a very different feeling we get from the lower drawing. The graceful wooden turnstile within the lovely Tudor stone arched gateway leading to the formal gardens within. A pleasant note upon which to conclude our wanderings as fence viewers.