8 Yew- Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



clipped hedges and topiary work, but there appears 

 to have been a natural rebound in the public mind 

 with regard to yew hedges after the attacks of 

 Addison and Pope, and the wholesale manner 

 they were swept away to make room for Brown's 

 new style of landscape-gardening. Thus we find 

 Knight expressing his dissatisfaction with the 

 modern idea, and longing for a return to the 

 former state of things : 



' Tired with the extensive scene, so dull and bare, 

 To Heaven devoutly I Ve address'd my prayer ; 

 Again the moss-grown terraces to raise, 

 And spread the labyrinth's perplexing maze ; 

 Replace in even lines the ductile yew, 

 And plant again the ancient avenue.' 1 



Nor is it to be wondered at that the sheltered 

 walks which let in the sun but kept out the wind, 

 affording such delightful promenades, should be 

 greatly missed in spring and autumn, as the cold 

 blasts blew without opposition through the now- 

 exposed and shelterless garden. 



Mr. Robinson, in his delightfully suggestive 

 book, The Wild Garden, says that he uses them 

 as a shelter for orchards, planting them some 

 distance apart, with flowering plants and shrubs 

 between, and clematis or bindweed to climb over 

 them. Some lovely effects would be produced in 

 this way, but much care would be needed that 



1 R. P. Knight, 2nd ed., 1795. 



