balanced wall n Also balance single wall, balance (stone) wall NEng Cf double stone wall n, face wall n, single wall n
A stone wall n laid one stone thick and without attention to the regularity of either side—also used as a mass noun.
1829 New Engl. Farmer (Fessenden) 8.148 eMA, He subdued the bushes upon a swell of thirty-five acres, a strong deep soil and immensely rocky; and put the stones into the best built balance wall, that the Committee remember to have ever seen. 1847 Dwight’s Amer. Mag. 3.222 MA, There is a difference of opinion whether a balance single wall, or a double wall makes the best fence. Mr. Buckminster thought that a double wall, which would cost twice as much as a single wall, would not stand so long. Hon. John Reed of Sandwich . . thought a balanced wall better than a faced wall. 1884 MA Ploughman & New Engl. Jrl. Ag. 18 Oct 1/3 ceMA, In Braintree he has built 2448 feet of balance stone wall, 5 feet high. 1919 House Beautiful 45.286 NEng, The crudest form of the balanced wall is low, but one stone wide, and piled without much care in fitting the stones together. 1934 Hanley Disks seCT, The balance wall, you can use anything. You don’t have to have . . any particular shape stone. 1939 LANE Map 119, 1 inf, seMA, Balanced wall, balance wall, made of loose stones not faced or cemented; 1 inf, ceMA, Balance wall, made of loose stones to divide lots; 1 inf, ceMA, Stone wall = balanced wall, ‘because those stone were balanced on each other.’ 1966–69 DARE (Qu. L60, A fence made of stone or rock without mortar) Inf NH3, Balanced wall; RI12, Stone wall or balanced wall.