GOLDEN AGE OF TOPIARY 13 
% 
as Elizabethan. This idea seems the more reasonable 
after a perusal of Withington’s “‘ Elizabethan England,” 
for though the Editor gives us Harrison’s description of 
Gardens and Orchards, Woods and Marshes, Parks and 
Warrens, there is never a word that can be construed 
into a reference to Topiary, not even in his account of 
‘the palaces belonging to the prince.” 
Nevertheless, quaint gardens were formed before the 
time of Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Drake, Raleigh, and 
Gerard. A curious conceit in these old-time gardens 
was the formation of a mound in the pleasure grounds, 
where none previously existed, and this seems to have 
been quite the correct thing in the way of garden design 
even as late as Evelyn’s day, for we learn that he 
arranged for a ‘‘mountaine” in the family gardens at 
Wotton, in Surry. Leland, in his ‘ Itinerary ” (1540), 
refers to this feature in garden design in connection with 
the garden at Wrexhill Castle, near Howden, in York- 
shire. He says: ‘‘ The Gardens within the mote, and 
the Orchardes without were exceeding fair. And yn 
the Orchardes were mounts, opere topiorii, writhen 
about with degrees like the turnings in cokil shelles, to 
come to the top without payn.” 
That Topiary had already a considerable hold upon the 
garden-loving public at this early date cannot be 
doubted. Very few of these ancient gardens remain 
unaltered at the present time, but in that most interesting 
book, ‘‘ A history of Gardening in England,” the Hon. 
Alicia Amherst gives the plans of Sir Henry Dryden’s 
gardens at Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire, which 
show that clipped yews are prominent features, as two 
rows of four trees each line one of the approaches, and 
these trees have a diameter of about ten feet. The 
author states that this garden, originally made in 1550, 
was altered in 1708, ‘‘and has defied the changes of 
fashion for nearly two centuries,” 
