Z>.lir.\' OF LAX DSC APE GARDE.MXG. 



229 



It has been said that it was the decadence of art in the 

 formal style which brought about its own fall, but it is difficult 

 to imagine anything more charming than some of the gardens 

 of the time of Queen Anne. Their chief characteristic was 

 the prevalence of long walks between cut trees, not exactly 

 hedges, but trees clipped up to a certain height, and allowed 

 to feather naturally at the top. A most curious example of this 

 is to be seen at Down, in Essex. The trees are cut to the 



" CASHIOBURY, THE SEAT OF THE RT. HONBLE. THE EARLE OF ESSEX IN 



HARTFORDSHIRE." 

 FROM AN ENGRAVING BY KIP.* 



height of sixty or seventy feet ; the path between them is 

 about fifteen feet wide, and seven hundred and eighty long,. 

 and closes with a view of Hatfield Broad Oak at the end. 

 This garden was made when the place belonged conjointly to 

 Prior, the poet, and Harley, Lord Oxford. t Prior wrote a 

 humorous poem on the occasion of his first visit to " Deny 



* See p. 184. 



f Now the propery of Lord Rookwood. 



