TOPIARY AND THE LABYRINTH 161 



of William Lawson, who wrote in the reign of King 

 James i., tell us what the English gardeners of an 

 earlier period felt ; and why should we, who surely 

 love our flowers no less, discard the beautiful old- 

 fashioned methods of display ? Let us have wide 

 pergolas and long arcaded walks, circular temples 

 and pillars for roses, and let us not fear that Nature 

 will fail to dress them with beauty, nor that in her 

 luxuriance she will show herself ungrateful for the 

 support and guidance of our formal craftsmanship. 

 If we lead she will follow ; but if we fail to give her 

 the opportunities she had of old, only ours will be 

 the loss. 



Topiary and the Labyrinth 



In his terse way, Lord Bacon dismissed the art 

 of the topiary gardener when he wrote : " I, for 

 my part, do not like images cut out in juniper 

 or other garden stuff; they be for children," and 

 there have been many since the famous Chan- 

 cellor's day who have agreed with him. Opinion is 

 certainly sharply divided upon the question of the 

 desirability or otherwise of adorning the garden with 

 cut hedges and artificially shaped trees. We shall 

 ii 



