Garden Boundaries 409 



he had to have what old-time cooks called judgment 

 or faculty. In English gardens many specimens of 

 topiary work still exist, maintained usually as relics 

 of the past rather than as a modern notion of the 

 beautiful. The old gardens at Levens Hall, page 

 404, contain some of the most remarkable examples. 

 In a few old gardens in America, especially in 

 Southern towns, traces of the topiary work of early 

 years can be seen; these overgrown, uncertain shapes 

 have a curious influence, and the sentiment awak- 

 ened is beautifully described by Gabriele d' Annun- 

 zio : — 



" We walked among evergreens, among ancient Box 

 trees, Laurels, Myrtles, whose wild old age had forgotten its 

 early discipline. In a few places here and there was some 

 trace of the symmetrical shapes carved once upon a time 

 by the gardener's shears, and with a melancholy not unlike 

 his who searches on old tombstones for the effigies of the 

 forgotten dead, I noted carefully among the silent plants 

 those traces of humanity not altogether obliterated." 



The height of topiary art in America is reached in 

 the lovely garden, often called the Italian garden, of 

 Hollis H. Hunnewell, Esq., at Wellesley, Massa- 

 chusetts. Vernon Lee tells in her charming essay 

 on " Italian Gardens " of the beauty of gardens with- 

 out flowers, and this garden of Mr. Hunnewell is an 

 admirable example. Though the effect of the black 

 and white of the pictured representations shown on 

 these pages is perhaps somewhat sombre, there is 

 nothing sad or sombre in the garden itself. The 

 clear gleam of marble pavilions and balustrades, the 



