434 



BUXUS SEMPEKVIRKNS. 



Gerard, Parkinson, ami oihor writers on ganlonintjand rural alTairs: and previously 

 to the Wllltli century, it was in great rt'piiie lor ge* metric gardens, from the 

 facility wiili wliich it could be made to assume any shape thai llie caprice or 

 ingenuity ot' the gardener might devise. It was also extensively employed for 

 that purpose both as a tree and as a shrub throu-jhout liUrope, from the earliest 

 times. As a tree, it lormed, when clipped into shape, hedges, arcades, arbours, 

 and, above all, the figures of animals. As a shrub, it was used to border beds 

 and walks, and for the execution of numerous curious devices, such as letters, 

 coats of arms, *fcc., on the ground: but of all the uses to whicli the dwarf box 

 was applied, the most important, in the ancient style of gardening, was that of 

 forming parterres of embroidery ; it being the only evergreen shrub su.sceplible of 

 forming the delicate lines which that kind of work required, and of being kept 

 within the narrow limits of its lines for a number of years. In those days, when 

 the dowers used in ornamenting gardens were few, the great art of the gardener 

 was to distinguish his parterres by beautiful and curious artifical forms of ever- 

 green plants. All the dark parts of the figures, when formed of box, in no part 

 were allowed to grow higher than three inches from the ground, and the finer 

 lines not to exceed two inches in width. The spaces between the lines or figures, 

 in the more common designs, were covered with sand all of one colour ; but in 

 the more choice parterres, different coloured sands, earths, shells, powdered glass, 

 and other articles were used, so as to produce red, white, and black grounds, on 

 which the green of the box appeared to advantage, at all seasons of the year. 

 The beauty of these parterres was most conspicuous when they were seen as a 

 whole from the windows of the house, or from a surrounding terrace-walk. 

 Sometimes, however, they were placed on a sloping bank, to be seen from below. 

 The embroidered style of parterre is still occasionally to be met w.ith adjoining 

 very old residences, in France and Italy, and even in a few places in England ; 

 and, as atFording variety, it is at least as worthy of revival as the architectural 

 style of building of the age in which it most extensively prevailed. About the 

 middle of the XYIIth century, the taste for verdant sculpture was at its height in 

 England; and, about the beginning of the XVIIIth century, it afforded a subject 

 of raillery for the wits of the day, soon afterwards beginning to decline. The 

 following lines, by West, will give a good idea of a topiary garden : 



" There likewise mote be seen on every side 

 The shapely box. of all ils branching pride 

 TJngently shorne, and, with preposterous skill, 

 To various beasts, and birds of sundry quill, 

 Transform'd and human shapes of monstrous size. 



***** 

 Also other wonders of the sportive shears, 

 Fair Nature mis-adorning, there were found; 

 Globes, spiral columns, pyramids, and piers 

 With spouting urns and budding statues crown'd ; 

 And horizontal dials on the ground. 

 In living box, by cunning artists traced ; 

 ' And galleys trim, on no long voyages bound, 



Bui by their roots there ever anchor'd fast."* 



The art of engraving on wood was invented before that of printing with mov- 

 able types; and it is supposed to have been first practised in the early part of the 

 XVth century. The first objects to which it was applied were very different in 

 their character, namely, books of devotion and playing cards. The mere outlines 

 of the figures were rudely cut in the wood with kniv6s, in the direction of the 

 grain, and the impressions were taken off by friction, without the aid of a press, 

 The earliest specimen of wood-engraving now extant, in England, is said to be 

 in the collection of the Earl of Spencer, and represents St. Christopher carrying the 

 infant Saviour; bearing the date of 1423. A very curious work was published 



* See Loudon's Arboretum, iii., pp. 1334 et seq. 



