INTRODUCTION 



IT is extremely fortunate that the Editor made no limita- 

 tions, beyond that of space, when giving me the invita- 

 tion to contribute a historical account of the Art of 

 Topiary, as a sort of preface to the practical advice 

 given in later chapters by Mr Gibson, who has charge 

 of the wonderful collection of clipped trees at Levens 

 Hall. This is fortunate, because it would have been 

 difficult either to wholly praise or wholly blame an art 

 that for at least a century and a half provided English 

 gardens with their outstanding feature. It were easy 

 for us to dismiss the whole subject of Topiary by affect- 

 ing a great superiority and referring to it only as a 

 monument of perverted taste, but that would neither 

 provide interest nor give instruction, and it is hoped 

 that both these ends may be served so far as the space 

 at disposal will permit. 



As it is an undoubted fact that for about one hundred 

 and fifty years Topiary was both fashionable and popular, 

 it follows that, whatever our taste may be, a considera- 

 tion of the subject cannot be lacking in interest. Never 

 did a horticultural fashion retain its hold upon a garden- 

 ing public so long as Topiary, but as fashions rarely 

 come spontaneously but are rather arrived at by a kind 

 of evolutionary process, so the art of Verdant Sculpture 

 must have had its Early History, followed by a develop- 

 ment of design limited only by the ingenuity of the 

 gardener. Then came what one may call the Golden 

 Age of Topiary, when every garden having any pre- 

 tensions whatever to importance was more or less notable 



