28 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



up, though it was replaced again owing to other 

 royal commands. 



Of all the destructive forces which make havoc 

 in a Garden man himself is surely the greatest, 

 far outdoing either weather or time, dire as the 

 ravages of both may be. An excellent bird's-eye 

 view of Hampton Court exists in Kip's " Britannia 

 Illustrata," showing the great semicircular Parterre. 

 At this time stone walls were replaced by magnifi- 

 cent wrought-iron gates and railings known as 

 " clair-voye"es." A handsome example is to be 

 seen at Hampton Court designed by Stephen 

 Switzer. 



Then came the vogue for clipping Yews and 

 Evergreens, which shortly developed such exag- 

 gerated proportions that every Garden was filled 

 with trees of all sorts and sizes cut into weird 

 shapes to represent animals, thus turning what 

 had once been a beauty into ridicule, and so giving 

 the next generation ample grounds for its contempt 

 of the practice. 



The Gardens of this date are admirably described 

 in Celia Fiennes' interesting book, "Through 

 England on a Side-saddle in the Time of William 

 and Mary." That she admires the new Dutch 

 style more than the old is not surprising, women 

 having ever been lovers of change and variety. 



Switzer declared that during King William's 

 reign (1697-1702) Gardens and Gardening were 



