GARDEN DESIGN 53 



" An unerring perception told the Greeks that the beautiful 

 must also be the true, and recalled them back into the way. 

 As in conduct they insisted on an energy which was rational, 

 so in art and in literature they required of beauty that it, 

 too, should be before all things rational" — Professor 

 Butcher, in Borne Aspects of the Greek Genius. 



Nature and Clipped Yews 



The remarks quoted below on Nature 

 and the clipping shears are not from Josh 

 Billings, but from 'The Formal Garden, 

 of which the literary merit, we are told 

 in the preface, belongs to Mr. Blomfield. 



A clipped Yew tree is as much a part of Nature 

 — that is, subject to natural laws — as a forest Oak ; 

 but the landscapist, by appealing to associations 

 which surround the personification of Nature, holds 

 up the clipped Yew tree to obloquy as something 

 against Nature. So far as that goes, it is no more 

 unnatural to clip a Yew tree than to cut Grass. 



I believe we cut Grass when we want 

 hay, or soft turf to play on, but disfigur- 

 ing a noble tree is not a necessary part 



