8 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



the fashion. These clipped hedges, indeed, were 

 no new invention, as Sir Walter Scott appears 

 to have thought, for Bacon had denounced 

 them. He did "not like images cut out in 

 juniper or other garden stuff, they be for chil- 

 dren." Earlier still, Leland, in his Itinerary ', 

 speaks of the Castle of Wrexhill, and says that 

 outside " the mote " were orchards, and " in the 

 orchards were mountes opere topiario" x 



But the most famous specimen of Topiarian 

 work in England is probably that at Levens 

 Hall in Westmoreland. It was the work of 

 Beaumont, a well-known gardener of his day, 

 and dates from 1701, the last year of William 

 III.'s reign. Colonel Graham was at that time 

 owner of Levens, and some curious letters from 

 his steward still exist, describing the laying-out 

 of the grounds and the planting of the yews, of 

 which one group was clipped into the shape of 

 Queen Elizabeth with her maids of honour. 



Long rows of trees, moreover, were now formed 

 on the several sides of great houses, and at 



1 See Note II., on Ars Topiaria. 



