YEW ARBOUR: LYDE 



It is not in large gardens only that hardy flowers are to be seen in 

 perfection. Often the humblest wayside cottage may show such a 

 picture of plant-beauty as will put to shame the best that can be seen at 

 the neighbouring squire's. And where labouring folk have a liking for 

 clipped yews, their natural good taste and ingenuity often turns them into 

 better forms than are seen among the examples of more pretentious 

 topiary work. 



The cottager has the undoubted advantage that, as his tree is usually 

 an isolated one, he can see by its natural way of growth the kind of 

 figure it suggests for his clipping ; whereas the gardener in the large 

 place usually has to follow a fixed design. So it is that one may see in a 

 cottage garden such a handsome example as the yew in the picture. 



The lower part of the tree is nearly square in plan, with a niche cut 

 out for a narrow seat. There is space enough between the top of 

 this and the underside of the great mushroom-shaped canopy, to allow 

 the upper surface of the square base to be green and healthy. The great 

 rounded top proudly carries its handsome crest, that is already a good 

 ornament and will improve year by year. The garden is raised above 

 the road and only separated from it by a wall which is low on the garden 

 side and deeper to the road. It passes by the side of the yew, so that the 

 occupier of the seat commands a view of the road and all that goes along 

 it, and can exchange greetings and gossip with those who pass by. 



The cottagers of the neighbourhood — it is in Herefordshire, about 

 four miles from Hereford — have a special fancy for these clipped yews ; 

 many examples may be met with in an afternoon's walk. Not very far 



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