22 THE BOOK OF TOPIARY 



of the employer almost to breaking point it passed 

 from reasonableness to absurdity. Then came a new 

 order of things ; perennials have been brought back 

 and improved ; hardy flowers are the fashion. 



When Topiary threatened to exclude all else from 

 the garden there arose several apostles of freedom, 

 and these conducted a crusade against the art. Among 

 those whose writings are more or less regarded in these 

 days mention may be made of three Bacon, Addison, 

 and Pope. 



The former early raised a protest, for in the times 

 of Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth, when Topiary 

 was the prevailing taste if not the general fashion, he 

 wrote, "I for my part do not like images cut in jumper 

 or other garden stuff; they be for children." It was 

 Bacon also who said : " As for the making of knots 

 or figures that they may lie under the windows of the 

 house on that side which the garden stands, they be 

 but toys ; you may see as good sights many times in 

 tarts." But, alas, Bacon was curiously inconsistent. 

 He would away with Topiary, but he puts forward as 

 the best type of a garden one that is square, enclosed 

 in an arched hedge, " with a turret over every arch, 

 and a cage of birds in each turret, and over every space 

 between the arches some other little figure with broad 

 plates of round coloured glass, gilt, for the sun to play 

 on." Those who so aptly quote Bacon when they pour 

 out the vials of their wrath upon Topiary through the 

 medium of the public press, may also be further 

 reminded that Bacon would have in his ideal garden a 

 fountain " embellished with coloured glass and such 

 things of lustre." 



But however much we may chuckle over the incon- 

 sistencies of Bacon it must be remembered that the 

 age in which he lived (1561-1626) was remarkable 

 rather for ostentatious display than for good taste, 



