Tree-rings, sometimes called ring plantations or shelter belts arranged in a deliberate circle or oval, were a feature of designed demesne landscapes, planted to frame a view, screen a working yard, or simply signal that a landowner had both the resources and the aesthetic inclination to shape the land around a residence. Unlike a formal avenue or a walled garden, the tree-ring tends to outlast the house it was meant to complement, and in many cases it is all that remains to suggest a more ordered world once existed there.