or arm, made to indicate the positions of the sinews and muscles, the veins and the arteries.
It is hardly necessary to say that the help of man’s hand, as well as of the rain and weather, is invoked for the decoration of fences,—not in painting, but in giving the appearance of age. Silvery lichens, velvety moss, green and orange; the warm greys won from the sun, the cold greys brought by the rain, assist in adorning the wood; but while the climate does a great deal, and does it quickly, intelligent aid helps on the good work. Earth is rubbed into the grain of the wood and is carefully damped, and moss is the recompense of this generous charity. Sometimes little ferns grow in the cracks, due, I am sure, to a deliberate invitation on the part of the fence owners.
A favourite method of decorating some wooden fences is to hold a lighted torch under the wood in places, so that it is charred,—an original and ugly form of ‘poker work’; it is, however, popular in fishing villages more particularly, as the charring is said to preserve the wood. The ‘Rustic Fence’ is often found, but it is not the meaningless, mongrel sort of thing that it is with us. Our rustic palings never seem to have any connexion with real outdoor life. But those in Japan are of ingeniously pretty shapes, like country girls, caught, but not frightened out of their native grace, and
