Introduction 7 



a porcupine, by Its being forgot a week in rainy 

 weather.' 



The Four Evangelists and Twelve Apostles at 

 Cleve Prior are finely depicted by Mr. E. R. Taylor 

 in a painting in the Exhibition of the Royal 

 Academy in the year 1896. 



Bradley says in 1717:^ 'I have seen great 

 varieties of figures, and very well represented, of 

 men, beasts, birds, ships, and the like ; but the most 

 common shapes which have been given to the yew 

 by gardeners are either cones or pyramids.' On 

 account of the smallness of its leaves, he thinks 

 the yew best adapted for clipping into the forms of 

 animals ; ' the holly and other broad-leaved ever- 

 greens are not fit for being cut into any nicer 

 figures than pyramids, balls, or a straight stem 

 with a top like the cap of a mushroom.' 



Collinson notes that the gardens about London 

 in 17 1 2 were remarkable for fine cut greens and 

 clipped yews, in the shape of birds, dogs, men, 

 ships, etc. The most remarkable instance still 

 exists at Packwood, Warwickshire, where the 

 Sermon on the Mount is literally represented in 

 clipped yew. 



Very many yew hedges and clipped trees were 

 swept away in the middle of the eighteenth century 

 by a man named Brown, who was gardener at 

 Hampton Court. He dealt ruthlessly with all 



^ New Iniprovements, p. 72. 



