GOLDEN AGE OF TOPIARY 17 



Charles II. encouraged elaborate garden design, and, 

 with it, Topiary ; it was under his orders that Le Notre 

 himself laid out the semi-circular garden at Hampton 

 Court. Gibson, who made a tour of London gardens 

 in the reign of the " Merry Monarch," shows by his 

 writings that the chief features of these establishments 

 were the terrace walks, evergreen hedges, " shorn 

 shrubs in boxes," and orange and myrtle trees. 



In the earlier part of the seventeenth century the 

 gardens of Bilton and Chilham were designed, with 

 an accompaniment of clipped trees, while later in the 

 century Sir William Temple, who negotiated the triple 

 alliance between England, Sweden, and the Netherlands, 

 laid out a Dutch garden at Moor Park. He had a large 

 affection for the Dutch style of gardening, but was 

 nevertheless quick to see that big formal gardens and 

 their elaborate designs and masonry cost more to 

 maintain in prim order than many who possessed them 

 could well afford. It was also about this time that the 

 now famous Topiary garden at Levens Hall, in West- 

 moreland, was laid out by Beaumont, one of Le Notre's 

 disciples. According to the inscription under his portrait 

 at Levens Hall, Beaumont was " Gardener to James II. 

 and Colonel James Grahme. He laid out the gardens 

 at Hampton Court and at Levens." It was probably in 

 some alteration of the Hampton Court gardens that 

 Beaumont took part. 



Topiary gardening reached its height during the 

 reign of William and Mary (1689-1702). William III., 

 Prince of Orange, brought with him a taste for clipped 

 yews, and also for elaborately designed iron gates and 

 railings. He accentuated the prevailing taste. Turn- 

 ing again to Johnson, we find garden design " was now 

 rendered still more opposed to nature by the heavy 

 additions of crowded hedges of Box, Yew, etc., which, 

 however, by rendering the style still more ridiculous, 



