Stone wall

New Hampshire is 80-85% woodland, and many of those woods are dissected by stone walls, set up by farmers in the 18th and early 19th century, both to clear land of boulders (an impossible task) or to mark borders and keep livestock from straying. When farmers left for the Ohio Valley, the cleared fields reverted back to forest. In the deep woods the walls are often falling apart through the action of winds, snow, and ice. Near settlements, people make efforts to maintain the walls. This wall delineates the land on which the town of Marlborough was settled in 1776. Although the original buildings are now gone, the land remains largely open but the wall, next to an unpaved road, has been carefully maintained.

 

"I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'

We wear our fingers rough with handling them."

(From "Mending Walls," by Robert Frost, the New Hampshire/California poet.) 23 July, 2017

Done