GOLDEN AGE OF TOPIARY 13 



as Elizabethan. This idea seems the more reasonable 

 after a perusal of Withington's " Elizabethan England," 

 for though the Editor gives us Harrison's description of 

 Gardens and Orchards, Woods and Marshes, Parks and 

 Warrens, there is never a word that can be construed 

 into a reference to Topiary, not even in his account of 

 " the palaces belonging to the prince." 



Nevertheless, quaint gardens were formed before the 

 time of Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Drake, Raleigh, and 

 Gerard. A curious conceit in these old-time gardens 

 was the formation of a mound in the pleasure grounds, 

 where none previously existed, and this seems to have 

 been quite the correct thing in the way of garden design 

 even as late as Evelyn's day, for we learn that he 

 arranged for a "mountaine" in the family gardens at 

 Wotton, in Surry. Leland, in his "Itinerary" (1540), 

 refers to this feature in garden design in connection with 

 the garden at Wrexhill Castle, near Howden, in York- 

 shire. He says: "The Gardens within the mote, and 

 the Orchardes without were exceeding fair. And yn 

 the Orchardes were mounts, opere topiorii, writhen 

 about with degrees like the turnings in cokil shelles, to 

 come to the top without payn." 



That Topiary had already a considerable hold upon the 

 garden-loving public at this early date cannot be 

 doubted. Very few of these ancient gardens remain 

 unaltered at the present time, but in that most interesting 

 book, " A history of Gardening in England," the Hon. 

 Alicia Amherst gives the plans of Sir Henry Dryden's 

 gardens at Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire, which 

 show that clipped yews are prominent features, as two 

 rows of four trees each line one of the approaches, and 

 these trees have a diameter of about ten feet. The 

 author states that this garden, originally made in 1550, 

 was altered in 1708, " and has defied the changes of 

 fashion for nearly two centuries." 



