22 



GARDENS OLD AND NEW. 



glowing flower- 

 beds, contrasted 

 with the dark 

 shade of " mid- 

 night yews." 

 The topiarius 

 was, as we have 

 said, an at cient 

 figure, known in 

 the Rome of the 

 Ca?sars ; he put 

 Nature in 

 duresse in 

 mediaeval gar- 

 dens ; lie was 

 skilled in the 

 ' antike work " 

 of Tudor pleas- 

 aunces ; alleys 

 of yew and 

 pleached arbours 

 of hornbeam 

 were his care in 

 Stuart and later 

 times. Bacon's 

 ideal garden, it 

 will be remem- 

 bered, had a 

 green in front, 

 and a heath or 



"desert" for contrast on the other side, alleys on either 

 hand, and a stately hedge to enclose it. It was not to be "too 

 busie or full of work" within, and, as for "images cut in 

 juniper or other garden stuffs," he did not like them "they 

 are for children." Yet, in moderate degree, and for the merit 

 of a great deal of quaintness, Bacon admitted the topiary 



Copyright. 



THE GOLDEN YEWS. 



gardener and 

 pleacher to his 

 pleasaunce. It 

 was only when 

 extravagance 

 was reached, 

 with odd figures, 

 that he pro- 

 tested. " They 

 be but toys ; you 

 may see as good 

 si glits many 

 times in tarts." 

 W e m a y 

 gather from his 

 view, which is 

 not lacking in 

 profundity, that 

 topiary garden- 

 ing is, after all, 

 a question of 

 degree, not of 

 kind. Evelyn 

 himself tells us 

 how they 

 trimmed the 

 hedges of horn- 

 beam, "than 

 which nothing is 

 more graceful," 

 and of that " cradel walk, for the perplexed twining of the 

 trees very observable "" Queen Mary's Bower," of wych- 

 elm, be 'it noted, at Hampton Court. He describes how 

 "tonsile hedges," ijft. or 2oft. high, were to be cut and 

 kept in order, by means of " a scythe of four feet long, and 

 very little falcated, fixed on a long sneed or straight handle." 



" Country Life." 



Copyright. 



THE APPROACH TO THE ITALIAN GARDEN. 



4 Country Lift,' 



