REVIVAL OF THE ART 33 



that they are in harmony with formal surroundings, or 

 disposed where they form a distinct item of horticultural 

 interest and do not in any way mar the more natural 

 beauties of adjacent subjects. 



Precisely why there has been a revival of this old 

 art I am not prepared to say. It must suffice that there 

 is such a revival, and a very distinct one, as any one 

 who visits gardens and exhibitions and nurseries 

 frequently will readily discover. At the leading 

 London and provincial exhibitions two old established 

 firms of nurserymen have frequently and extensively 

 exhibited examples of Topiary; these are Messrs 

 Wm. Cutbush & Son, Highgate, N., and Messrs J. 

 Cheal & Sons, Crawley, Sussex; and it may be 

 safely asserted that if there were no taste or demand 

 for clipped trees the respective proprietors would 

 not incur the necessarily heavy expense of displaying 

 this particular line of goods. 



In the revival of Topiary in England no single person 

 has taken a deeper interest than Mr Herbert J. Cutbush, 

 and though his interest is confessedly a business one 

 it is none the less worthy of mention. For many years 

 Mr H. J. Cutbush has frequently visited Holland and 

 he has travelled through and through the little country 

 until he knows it, horticulturally, far better than even 

 many eminent Dutch nurserymen do. He discovered 

 that some of the best trained and best furnished 

 specimens of sculptured yew and box were to be found 

 in the farmhouse gardens, in small, almost unknown 

 villages, far from the usual routes of tourists and 

 business-men, and this led to still further explorations. 

 During the first years of the revival Mr H. J. Cutbush 

 crossed over to Holland nearly every week end making 

 himself acquainted with the farmers, and with the few 

 growers who regularly supplied the Dutch nursery 

 trade. He got to know where examples were being 



c 



