" OLITORY- MAZE BOWLING-GREEN. 63 



and, having tried the experiment, we can boldly 

 pronounce on its success. We recommend the idea 

 to the consideration of our lady-gardeners. 



We can recall so much amusement in early years 

 from the maze at Hampton Court, that we could 

 heartily wish to see a few more such planted. 

 Daines Barrington mentions a plan for one in 

 Switzer (Iconographia, 1718) with twenty stops : 

 that at Hampton has but four. A fanciful summer- 

 house perched at the top of a high mound, with 

 narrow winding paths leading to it, was another 

 favourite ornament of old British gardens. Traces 

 of many such mounds still exist ; but the crowning- 

 buildings are, alas! no more. We must own our 

 predilection for them, if it were only that the gilded 

 pinnacle seemed to prefigure to the young idea 

 " Fame's proud temple shining from afar " (it is 

 always so drawn in frontispieces) ; while the hard 

 climbing was a palpable type of the ambition of after 

 years. 



The snug smooth bowling-green is another desi- 

 deratum we would have restored; and gardeners 

 ought to know that the clipped yew hedges which 

 should accompany it are the best possible protection 

 for their flowers ; and that there is nothing flowers 

 need so much as shelter, the nursery-grounds, 

 where almost alone these hedges are now retained, 

 will testify. Where they already exist, even in a 

 situation where shelter is not required, and where 

 yet a good view is shut out, we should prefer cutting 

 windows or niches in the solid hedge to removing it 



