ARTIFICIAL ADAPTATIONS, ETC. 113 



gardening is included in, and subject to the rules of landscape- 

 gardening : an unfortunate error. The word landscape conveys an 

 idea of breadth and extent of view, so that landscape-gardening 

 means gardening on a great scale, in imitation of natural scenery. 

 All the effects that can be produced artificially with small trees, by 

 topiary arts, may seem puerile as parts of a landscape ; but in the 

 dimensions of a small lot, where each feature of the place needs 

 to be made as full of interest as possible, no such idea is con- 

 veyed. On the contrary, whatever little arts will render single 

 sylvan objects more curious and attractive, or more useful for 

 special purposes, may with propriety be availed of. It is as absurd 

 to apply all the rules of grand landscape-gardening to small 

 places, as to imitate in ordinary suburban dwellings the models of 

 palaces. The only limit to the use of topiary work of the char- 

 acter we are about to treat of is, that whatever is done shall be 

 subsidiary to a general and harmonious plan of embellishment, 

 and that the forms employed shall have some useful significance. To 

 shape trees into the forms of animals, or to resemble urns or vases, 

 or into ungraceful forms suggestive of no use or beauty, are farci- 

 cal freaks of gardening art to be played very rarely and unobtrusive- 

 ly. As one of Walter Scott's famed Scotch Judges, when caught 

 in the act of playing king in a court of buffoons, is made to say 

 that it takes a wise man to know when and where to play the fool, 

 so in such freaks of art as those just named, great prudence is 

 necessary. The safest course is not to worry or coax nature 

 into such caricatures. But hedges, arches, arbors, and bowers 

 of verdure are all useful, and the tribute that nature renders to art 

 in such forms is as proper and sensible as the modes by which her 

 grains and vegetables are improved on farms and in gardens. 



HEDGES AND SCREENS. These are usually made of shrubs or 

 trees which naturally take a dense low growth, and, if for barriers 

 against animals, of those which are thorny. The wild thorns, and 

 other trees clipped by browsing cattle and sheep until they seem 

 condensed into solid masses of leaves and thorns, doubtless sug- 

 gested the use of hedges, which has become more general in Eng- 

 land than in any other country ; and there the climate and the 



