Garden Boundaries 411 



land is at Ascott, the seat of Mr. Leopold de 

 Rothschild, but the examples there have not 

 attained a growth at all approaching those at 

 Wellesley. Mr. Hunnewell writes thus of his 

 garden : — 



" It was after a visit to Elvaston nearly fifty years ago 

 that I conceived the idea of making a collection of trees 

 for topiary work in imitation of what I had witnessed at 

 that celebrated estate. As suitable trees for that purpose 

 could not be obtained at the nurseries in this country, and 

 as the English Yew is not reliable in our New England 

 climate, I was obliged to make the best selection possible 

 from such trees as had proved hardy here — the Pines, 

 Spruces, Hemlocks, Junipers, Arbor-vitae, Cedars, and 

 Japanese Retinosporas. The trees were all very small, 

 and for the first twenty years their growth was shortened 

 twice annually, causing them to take a close and compact 

 habit, comparing favorably in that respect with the Yew. 

 Many of them are now more than forty feet in height and 

 sixty feet in circumference, the Hemlocks especially proving 

 highly successful." 



This beautiful example of art in nature is ever 

 open to visitors, and the number of such visitors is 

 very large. It is, however, but one of the many 

 beauties of the great estate, with its fine garden of 

 Roses, its pavilion of splendid Rhododendrons and 

 Azaleas, its uncommon and very successful rock 

 garden, and its magnificent plantation of rare trees. 

 There are also many rows of fine hedges and arches 

 in various portions of the grounds, hedges of clipped 

 Cedar and Hemlock, many of them twenty feet 

 high, which compare well in condition, symmetry, 



