146 



THE HOUSE AND ITS EQUIPMENT. 



distinct feature in English gardens, perhaps because our native yc\v is of all evergreens the most docile 

 to such treatment. There are great hedges of clipped yew in old English gardens that are not only 

 delightful objects in themselves, but most beneficent for shelter. They are also the best of backgrounds 

 to masses of flowers, and delightful companions to great stretches of velvet-like turf. At Cleeve Prior 

 in \Yorcestershire there is a remarkable double hedge of continuous arches of clipped yews. It ranges 

 along on each side of the flagged entrance path, each opening giving pleasant garden views. At 



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162. FOUNTAIN AT IIKWEU, GRANT, E. 



Elvaston are some extraordinary specimens of topiary work in yew. One example, called the Moor s 

 Arch, has a symmetrical figure carried on two green-clothed stems. From the shoulders of the green 

 roofing-mass rises a well-designed crown, and between the arches of the crown are rounded lugs, reminding 

 one of those on the monolithic roof of the Mausoleum of Thcodoric at Ravenna. This garden is rich in 

 cut yews ; many are shaped into crowned cones, others into peacocks and architectural forms. Some 

 of the most curiously-shaped yews are at Levens in Westmorland, a garden full of charm, where the best 

 of hardy flowers are seen most happily against a background of yew, clipped into strange and fantastic 

 shapes. The form of the garden and its topiary work cannot have been that of the designer. It is a 

 charming scherzo that has run riot through the centuries in its own sweet way. This curious place 

 must be regarded as an exception, for there is no real excuse for topiary work except in the case of definite 

 design, when living vegetation is treated as walling and when trees are cut into points of distinctly 

 architectural effect. But where such design is absent, and where trees stand isolated, serving no purpose 

 of wall, arch, arbour or perspective, they should not be trimmed into bosses or fantastic forms. All 

 that should be done is to so regulate their growth as to keep it in harmony with what is near. 



