388 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



October, 1910 



and pyramids, holly and white thorn are often used. The 

 best results are obtained with single trees, as the treat- 

 ment can be carried out more advantageously and with 

 better success, whole hedges not being so susceptible to 

 this work. Inasmuch, however, as the yew is of unusually 

 slow growth, a period of fifty or sixty years must elapse 

 before the shape of the tree can be considered perfect. 



A garden which is laid out for topiary treatment, as 

 in the illustrations which we show, presents a rather weird 

 and fascinating appearance. In the Levens Hall collec- 

 tion, birds and animals are intermingled with other forma- 

 tions, such as cups and saucers and geometrical designs. 



How once they lived and wherefore they are there. 



"Alas! that breathing \'anity should go 

 Where pride is buried; like its very ghost 



Unrisen from the naked bones below. 

 In novel flesh, clad in the silent boast 



Of gaudy silk, that flutters to and fro. 

 Shedding its chilling superstition most 



On young and ignorant natures — as is wont 



To haunt the peaceful churchyard of Bedfont." 



Pope, who must often have seen these quaint artificial 

 ornaments, satirized them in No. 173 of the "Guardian": 



Unique shapes are used to serve as arbors, and the trees "How contrary to simplicity is the modern practice of gar- 

 are so thick that they act as a protection in the most dening! We seem to make it our study to recede from 

 inclement weather, as well as does the ordinary type of nature not only in the various tonsure of greens into the 



most regular and formal shapes, but even into monstrous 



attempts beyond 



summer house. 



The village of 

 Bedfont:, near 

 London, contains 

 some celebrated 

 examples of the 

 topiary art. The 

 quaintness of its 

 appearance is in- 

 creased by its lit- 

 tle Norman 

 church, with its 

 wooden tower 

 and dwarf stee- 

 ple, and its pair 

 of trim and for- 

 mal yew trees, 

 cut out into the 

 shapes of pea- 

 cocks, with the 

 date 1704, and 

 the initials of the 

 churchwardens of 

 that time, still 

 legible in the 

 cropped foliage. 

 The local tradi- 

 tion is that they 

 represent satiric- 

 ally two sisters 

 who lived at Bed- 

 font, and who 

 were so very 

 haughty that they 

 both refused the 

 hand of some 

 local magnate, 

 who thus immor- 

 talized them, be- 

 ing "as proud as 



peacocks." This, however, is a legend only. These are 

 some of the grotesque shapes with which a stiff, formal and 

 unnatural age loved to decorate its gardens, lawns and al- 

 leys; and they are only a "survival" of what once was a 

 common fashion. 



If the peacocks have rendered the two maiden ladies 

 above mentioned immortal, they have in their turn been 

 immortalized by Thomas Hood, who makes them the sub- 

 ject of one of the most serious of his early "serious" poems: 



"Where erst two haughty maidens used to be. 



In pride of plume, where plumy Death hath trod. 



Trailing their gorgeous velvet wantonly. 

 Most unmeet pall, over the holy sod: 



There, gentle stranger, thou may'st only see 

 Two sombre peacocks. Age, with sapient nod 



Marking the spot, still taries to declare 



A simple design showing the result of continuous clipping and trimming 



the reach of the 

 art itself; we run 

 into sculpture, 

 and are yet bet- 

 ter pleased to 

 have our trees in 

 the most awk- 

 ward figures of 

 men and animals 

 than in the most 

 regular of their 

 own. ... A citi- 

 zen is no sooner 

 proprietor of a 

 couple of yews, 

 but he entertains 

 thoughts of erect- 

 ing them into 

 giants, like those 

 of Guildhall. I 

 know an eminent 

 cook who beauti- 

 fied h i s country 

 country seat with 

 the coronation- 

 dinner in greens 

 (e V e r g r eens), 

 where you see the 

 champion flour- 

 ishing on horse- 

 back at one end 

 of the table, and 

 the queen in per- 

 petual y o u t h at 

 the other." And 

 he adds a list of 

 some fifteen or 

 sixteen subjects 

 cut in evergreens, from Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark 

 down to Queen Elizabeth, which are to be disposed of by 

 an "eminent town gardener" of his acquaintance. 



Most of the specimens in England remain as curiosities, 

 but it can hardly be called a lost art in view of the fact that 

 we even find modern examples in this country. In a number 

 of Southern towns good examples may be found. Califor- 

 nia also has some specimens of very good work, but the 

 acme of topiary art is reached in the garden of the Hunne- 

 well Estate at Wellesley, Mass. Mr. Hunnewell's success 

 has been the more notable, since in England the results have 

 been achieved with yews, which do not thrive in the New 

 England climate. He used, therefore, such trees as were 

 suitable to the conditions, and employed pine, spruce, hem- 

 lock, junipers, arbor-vitae, cedars and Japanese retino- 

 sporas. When planted these trees were very small, and for 



