"ANTICKE WORKS" 227 



is attained. And our ancestors were almost as impa- 

 tient as we are to-day, as well as being pretty busy 

 folks; so a garden which promised quicker returns 

 and needed less care, appealed to them more than cut 

 work. 



This carving of trees and shrubs into the forms of 

 other things, however, is one of the most ancient of 

 garden fancies. Its origin, indeed, is so remote that 

 it can hardly be guessed; the Romans were skilled in 

 the art, but earlier gardeners probably taught it to 

 them. Yews furnish perhaps the best plastic material 

 for the tree sculptor, but they do not thrive in our 

 climate — at least not in all of our climate. There 

 are other dense-growing trees and shrubs, however, 

 which may be used, and in the few attempts at this 

 sort of thing which were ever made here, boxwood and 

 cedar probably have taken precedence over anything 

 else. Privet, upon which we depend so greatly for 

 the hedges of to-day, was highly commended as long 

 ago as the "Paradisus." Parkinson says of it there 

 that its use "is so much and so frequent throughout 

 all this land, although for no other purpose but to make 

 hedges or arbours in gardens &c., whereunto it is so 

 apt that no other can be like unto it, to be cut, lead 

 and drawn into what forme one will either of beasts, 

 birds or men armed or otherwise :" that he "could not 

 forget it," even though it was nought but a hedge 

 plant. But no one seems to have cared much about it 



