REVIVAL OF THE ART 35 



is also provided for, inasmuch as verdant tombstones 

 and Latin crosses are grown in considerable numbers, 

 and some of these would be vast improvements upon 

 many of the ugly head-stones and other memorials of 

 a more solid character that crowd our graveyards. 

 Pyramids, mop-heads, and blunt cones are among the 

 commonest designs ; they do not call for the exercise 

 of much ingenuity, but when these pyramidal trees are 

 cut into several regular and well graded tiers their cost 

 increases considerably. Another form of tree that 

 naturally suggests itself to the Dutch grower, who all 

 his life is used to water and boats, is that of a sailing 

 ship, or barge ; but these are not so easy to evolve from 

 either box or yew, and they call for a good deal of 

 training in addition to the cutting and clipping necessary 

 to keep them shapely. Thin wires and a few light 

 bamboo rods usually complete the training outfit 

 necessary, but taking the whole range of topiarian 

 design, training, in the sense of tying out, is not much 

 practised. 



Compared with the designs enumerated in the 

 catalogue that Pope's fancy created, the modern list 

 of verdant sculptures is a very modest one. True we 

 may have Jugs and Beakers, Wreaths as well as Crosses, 

 and Swans as well as Peacocks, varying in price from 

 three guineas to ten guineas each, but the moderns do 

 not attempt to pourtray Adam and Eve, nor do they 

 caricature the poets and statesmen of the age, in living 

 box and yew. 



Prices are governed chiefly by the size and age 

 (height and density), and the design of the specimen. 

 The yew tree being of slower growth than the box is, 

 size for size, the most expensive of the two, and well 

 furnished examples that have not exceeded marketable 

 size vary in age from twenty to sixty years. Even when 

 designed in box the birds are about ten or twelve years 



