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Some of the finest stone walls are found in Killingworth, Connecticut, as shown above.
Photos by Muffy Aldrich |
"The thing that might impress you most about New England is its stone 'walls.' When they were built anything forming an enclosure was called a fence. Whether it was made of roots or wood or stone, they were never referred to as walls; they are more properly called stone fences."
- Eric Sloane
One of the most famous quotes on stone walls comes from (distant cousin) Robert Frost. "Good fences make good neighbors." This would probably make some "top ten" list of Frost quotes. But of course the quote is a straw man against which he mulls in Mending Wall. This, then, becomes its own meta-cautionary tale. The most memorable cautionary tales, from the movie Wall Street to the board game Monopoly, too often become role models. Life may imitate art, but it more readily imitates satire.
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| I took this in Concord, Massachusetts. |
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| And this in Midcoast Maine. |
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| More dry stone walls in Killingworth, Connecticut |
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| And in Wiscasset, Maine |
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| Eric Sloane and his dog, Spooky - Photograph By My Father |
I have always been fascinated by the walls of New England and in our area of Virginia. I have an old original map of our farm drawn in 1680. Apparently, these walls have been rebuilt numerous times. Often think of the people who built them.
ReplyDeleteMust have been an influx of Yorkshiremen. They are identical to our "dry stone walls" here in the Yorkshire Dales
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