woods and fields, the grape, the morning-glory, the honeysuckle and the Virginia creeper, which, with their vernal or autumnal leaves and blossoms, decorated its ugliness with their beauty.
Not all of the fences to be found in Virginia in the seventeenth century were erected in a zigzag shape. Fitzhugh mentions in one of his letters, that his orchard was protected by an enclosure of locust wood; this was doubtless a straight fence constructed of panels, the ends of which were inserted in posts standing at regular intervals. The durability of locust was already recognized. Fitzhugh declared that a fence of this material would last almost for the same length of time as a brick wall.[1] There were also brush fences, which were chiefly used for the protection of the maize and wheat fields, but which very frequently failed to accomplish that purpose.
The year 1684 was a memorable one in the history of Virginia, as that in which a separate province was formed of its northern parts.
- ↑ Letters of William Fitzhugh, April 22, 1686. The following is from the Records of Accomac County, original vol. 1682-1697, f. p. 129: “Richard Johnson, Mulatto, doth by these presents forthwith impower you in my name to confess a judgment unto John Cole to fall, mall, and set up for John Cole upon his plantation where he shall appoint 400 panels of sufficient post and rails, every pannell ten foot distance and five rails of pine to every pannell, and every post to be seven foot and half, one foot and a half in ye ground, the said post to be all of chestnut and whiteoak.” This fence was intended to serve as a protection for a cornfield.
