72 THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND iii 



over out of Holland by the Dutch gardeners, 

 who used it to a fault, especially in England, 

 where we abound in so good grass and gravel " ; 

 but Switzer is inaccurate here, for the custom 

 of " pleaching " was an old one in England. It 

 now, however, developed into a positive mania for 

 cocks and hens and other conceits in yew and box, 

 and for little clipped trees spaced symmetrically 

 along the sides of the walks, as they are shown 

 in nearly all Kip's views, and particularly in the 

 views of Wimple and Staunton Harold. In 

 the latter there is a suggestion of a whole 

 menagerie in clipped work along the sides of 

 the great basin. Peter Collinson notes that 

 "the gardens about London in 17 12 were 

 remarkable for fine cut greens and dipt yews 

 in the shape of birds, dogs, men, ships, etc." 

 The curious cut work in the gardens of Levens 

 Hall, in Westmoreland, is a well-known instance. 

 This garden was planted early in the eighteenth 

 century, and is evidently a deliberate copy of a 

 Dutch model. The difference between the 

 French influence and the Dutch is very well 

 shown by the contrast between the gardens of 

 Melbourne and Levens ; there is something a 

 little childish about the latter. In the garden 

 of Risley Hall, in Derbyshire, there is a charming 

 instance of cut yew — two doves about 7 feet 

 long billing each other form an archway in a 

 yew hedge ; but the most remarkable instance 

 still exists at Packwood, in W^arwickshire, where 



