96 GARDENS: THEIR FORM AND DESIGN 



gradually grow more close together, and mix with other 

 trees, then in the darkness of the forest people of other 

 times, who have gone before, rise up to greet us. 



The fairies we can see, when they allow us with the 

 children to stand afar upon Midsummer Night's Eve and 

 watch for them in the moonlight, either upon the broad- 

 backed downs, where rings of silvery Lunaria bid them 

 hold a dance, or maybe sometimes after the red sun has 

 sunk beyond the stems of the pine-trees. All below is 

 misty blue with bluebells, but here and there a tall green 

 stem of bracken waits for a fairy's wand to strengthen it 

 and bid it grow. Then, in the stillness of twilight, are 

 " elves and pixies " near. 



In the depths of the forest Ivanhoe and Robin Hood, 

 with all the bow-and-arrow men, speak again. Each dark 

 green yew with thick red-brown stem tells of Crecy and 

 brave yeomen, the oak-trees recall hunting-parties which 

 swept by to hawk out in the open country ; and so all 

 these great trees remain to us as precious gifts, living 

 creatures that we would not have vanish or injured. 



Is it pardonable to have somewhat the same feeling, 

 one of treasured recollection, as a handsome clipped-yew 

 peacock comes to mind, in a very ancient manor garden ? 

 Or, perhaps, in an archway leading to a black and white 

 timber cottage, we see a quaint old-fashioned represen- 

 tation of a bear, the heraldic emblem of an overlord of 

 former days — a beast that would delight the heart of cmy 

 child, though older people, too, confess a joy in looking 

 at it, because of the associations of the past which have 

 been clipped and made live in it ? Surely it is a treasured 

 heirloom ! 



It is counted a weakness by some to tolerate the 

 cruelty of topiary work. A lover of Nature, the man 

 who worships trees for their beautiful natural forms but 

 has no great love for the history of bygone countrymen. 



