340 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



of robbing hedges. Some, perhaps, of these close lines of yews, set 

 with such little thought, owe their origin to the maze idea ; but the 

 maze was for a wholly different end, and in it we have only to grow 

 its trees and the paths are free for the roots ; while in the rose and 

 flower garden our costs and cares to get an artistic and beautiful 

 result are too heavy to have them eaten up before our eyes by the 

 hungriest of tree roots. If there were no other way to enjoy these 

 evergreen trees, clipped or otherwise, one would not, perhaps, have so 

 much to say against them ; but we have only to step out of the flower 

 garden to indulge in the love of many evergreens to our heart's 

 content. 



CLIPPED EVERGREEN SHRUBS IN THE BEDS OF THE FLOWER 

 GARDEN. A gardener with shears in his hand is generally doing fool's 

 work, but there is much difference between his clipping old or sheltering 



Example of old topiary work. 



lines of Yews, or even the Peacock in box, and the clipping which goes 

 on in some gardens where beds are filled with small evergreen bushes 

 instead of flowers. We may see it practised in gardens laid out by 

 Paxton and his followers, their object being no doubt to get rid 

 of the trouble of real flower-gardening, and also to have evergreen 

 beds in winter. This effect may be obtained in a way, but the bushes 

 usually get far too thick, and then the shears are used to keep them in 

 bounds, and what ought to be graceful groups of flowers or shrubs 

 of good form becomes flat, hard, and ugly. The clipping may 

 be designed at first, but oftener it is done to repress overgrowth. 

 A more stupid way of filling the beds of a flower garden could 

 hardly be imagined, because we lose all the grace and form of the 

 shrubs, and also the chance of seeing flowers growing among them, 

 which is one of the prettiest phases of flower gardening when Lilies, 

 Gladioli, and other graceful plants spring from groups of choice 





