GOLDEN AGE OF TOPIARY 17 
Charles II. encouraged elaborate garden design, and, 
with it, Topiary ; it was under his orders that Le Notre 
himself laid out the semi-circular garden at Hampton 
Court. Gibson, who made a tour of London gardens 
in the reign of the ‘‘ Merry Monarch,” shows by his 
writings that the chief features of these establishments 
were the terrace walks, evergreen hedges, ‘shorn 
shrubs in boxes,” and orange and myrtle trees. 
In the earlier part of the seventeenth century the 
gardens of Bilton and Chilham were designed, with 
an accompaniment of clipped trees, while later in the 
century Sir William Temple, who negotiated the triple 
alliance between England, Sweden, and the Netherlands, 
laid out a Dutch garden at Moor Park. He had a large 
affection for the Dutch style of gardening, but was 
nevertheless quick to see that big formal gardens and 
their elaborate designs and masonry cost more to 
maintain in prim order than many who possessed them 
could well afford. It was also about this time that the 
now famous Topiary garden at Levens Hall, in West- 
moreland, was laid out by Beaumont, one of Le Notre’s 
disciples. According to the inscription under his portrait 
at Levens Hall, Beaumont was ‘‘ Gardener to James II. 
and Colonel James Grahme. He laid out the gardens 
at Hampton Court and at Levens.” It was probably in 
some alteration of the Hampton Court gardens that 
Beaumont took part. 
Topiary gardening reached its height during the 
reign of William and Mary (1689-1702). William IIL, 
Prince of Orange, brought with him a taste for clipped 
yews, and also for elaborately designed iron gates and 
railings. He accentuated the prevailing taste. Turn- 
ing again to Johnson, we find garden design ‘‘ was now 
_ rendered still more opposed to nature by the heavy 
additions of crowded hedges of Box, Yew, etc., which, 
however, by rendering the style still more ridiculous, 
B 
