26 THE BOOK OF TOPIARY 



embroidery of the meadows were helped and improved 

 by some small additions of art and the several rows of 

 edges set off by trees and flowers that the soil was 

 capable of receiving, a man might make a pretty land- 

 scape of his own possessions." 



Continuing, the Essayist adds: "Writers who have 

 given us an account of China tell us the inhabitants of 

 that country laugh at the plantations of our Europeans, 

 which are laid out by the rule and line ; because they 

 say, anyone may place trees in equal rows and uniform 

 figures. They choose rather to show a genius in works 

 of this nature, and therefore always conceal the art by 

 which they direct themselves. They have a word, it 

 seems, in their language, by which they express the 

 particular beauty of a plantation that thus strikes the 

 imagination at first sight, without discovering what it 

 is that has so agreeable an effect. Our British gardeners, 

 on the contrary, instead of humouring nature, Jove to 

 deviate from it as much as possible. Our trees rise in 

 cones, globes, and pyramids. We see the marks of the 

 scissors upon every plant and bush. I do not know 

 whether I am singular in my opinion, but for my own 

 part, I would rather look upon a tree in all its luxuriancy 

 and diffusion of boughs and branches, than when it is 

 thus cut and trimmed into a mathematical figure ; and 

 cannot but fancy that an orchard in flower looks infinitely 

 more delightful than all the little labyrinths of the most 

 finished parterre. But, as our great modellers of gardens 

 have their magazines of plants to dispose of, it is very 

 natural for them to tear up all the beautiful plantations 

 of fruit-trees, and contrive a plan that may most turn to 

 their own profit, in taking off their evergreens, and the 

 like movable plants, with which their shops are plenti- 

 fully stocked." 



It will be perfectly obvious that when Addison found 

 it necessary to draw comparisons between a free and 



