Introduction 1 3 



mixed with spruce and Scotch firs. 1 In the middle 

 distance is a well-wooded country, and beyond are 

 the Yorkshire wolds, looking blue in the distance. 

 The whole makes a most striking" and lovely 

 picture. In the garden is another picturesque 

 effect. The old Danish encampment, a high 

 mound, surrounded by a dry moat, is covered 

 with yew-trees, Scotch firs, and large box- trees, 

 some of the firs having their red trunks partly 

 covered with ivy. The general effect of colour 

 with the foreground of flowers in the moat is 

 very striking. 



A yew hedge makes a fine background for the 

 flower border, setting off the colours delightfully. 

 Hollyhocks, dahlias, helianthuses, and asters are 

 well shown up by the darker foliage of the yew. 



In Sir George Tressady, Mrs. Humphry Ward 

 has a beautiful imaginative passage describing a 

 scene, made up of old ruins, clipped yew hedges, 

 and masses of flowers, artistically ' mixed,' however, 

 as to their blooming season. * Amid the ruins of 

 a cloister that had once formed part of the dis- 

 solved Cisterian priory, on whose confiscated lands 

 Castle Luton had arisen, a rich medley of flowers 

 were in full and perfect bloom. Irises in a very 

 ravishing shade of purple, lilac and gold carpets, 

 or daffodils and narcissus, covered the ground, 



1 The trees which form the hedge cannot be nearly as old as this, none of 

 them having so much as a foot of diameter. 



