58 GARDEN DESIGN 



their notions of " design " is surely not a 

 reason why we, who have the trees of 

 a thousand hills with trees of almost 

 every size and shape among them, 

 should violate and mutilate some of the 

 finest natural forms ! 



Thus while it may be right to clip 

 a tree to form a wall, dividing -line, or 

 hedge, it is never so to clip trees grown 

 as single specimens or groups, as by 

 clipping such we only get ugly forms — 

 unnatural, too. Last autumn, in Hyde 

 Park, I saw a rhan clipping Hollies at 

 the Rotten Row' end of the Serpentine, 

 and asking him why it was done, he 

 said it was to " keep them in shape," 

 though, to do him justice, he added 

 that he thought it would be better to 

 let them alone. Men who clip so hand- 

 some a tree as the Holly when taking 

 no part in a hedge or formal line are 

 blind to beauty of form. To tolerate 

 such clipped forms is to prove oneself 



