Horace Walpole, Essay on Modern Gardening

‘A short walk from the outer homes of the village, not more than 200 meters, leads suddenly to the edge of a cliff. The view here is marvelous, the air fresh. Below one’s feet is the coastal plain, from Kfar Saba to the sea … At one point in the plain … the small and crowded farming plots of the Palestinian are replaced by the open fields of the kibbutzim and moshavim in Israel. You look a bit more and suddenly realize that this cliff, more than 100 meters high, is the work of man. The work of the fence builders.

‘The hill was cut in the middle, and the route of the fence is paved beneath it. The word “fence” is too paltry to describe the matter. On the eastern side, the Palestinian side, there is barbed wire, then a deep ditch, then a dirt road, then the fence itself, eight meters high, and then another dirt road, then an asphalt road … and then more barbed wire.’