Introduction 5 



lives green for a thousand years.' Gilpin, in 1791, 

 says:^ 'I profess myself (contrary, I suppose, to the 

 general opinion) a great admirer of its form and 

 foliage. The Yew is, of all other trees, the most 

 tonsile. Hence all the indignities it suffers. We 

 everywhere see it cut and metamorphosed into 

 such a variety of deformities, that we are hardly 

 brought to conceive it has a natural shape, or the 

 power which other trees have of hanging carelessly 

 and negligently. 



'Yet it has this power in a very eminent degree ; 

 and in a state of nature, except in exposed situa- 

 tions, is perhaps one of the most beautiful ever- 

 greens we have. Indeed I know not whether, all 

 things considered, it is not superior to the cedar of 

 Lebanon itself.' 



In ornamental gardening it was employed as early 

 as the Tudor times to form hedo-es, which were 

 ' pleached ' and clipped into the forms of grotesque 

 beasts, birds, cones, pyramids, or other fantastic 

 shapes. During the seventeenth century the taste 

 for this kind of art increased, and in the time of 

 William and Mary had reached its highest point. 



Lord Bacon had in the previous century con- 

 demned the practice. * I for my part,' he says," 

 ' do not like images cut out in juniper and other 

 garden stuff; they be for children.' 



Evelyn claims ' without vainitie ' the credit of 



^ Remarks on Forest Scenery. ' Essays. 



