INTRODUCTION 
Ir is extremely fortunate that the Editor made no limita- 
_ tions, beyond that of space, when giving me the invita- 
tion to contribute a historical account of the Art of 
Topiary, as a sort of preface to the practical advice 
given in later chapters by Mr Gibson, who has charge 
of the wonderful collection of clipped trees at Levens 
Hall. This is fortunate, because it would have been 
difficult either to wholly praise or wholly blame an art 
that for at least a century and a half provided English 
gardens with their outstanding feature. It were easy 
for us to dismiss the whole subject of Topiary by affect- 
ing a great superiority and referring to it only as a 
monument of perverted taste, but that would neither 
provide interest nor give instruction, and it is hoped 
that both these ends may be served so far as the space 
at disposal will permit. 
As it is an undoubted fact that for about one hundred 
and fifty years Topiary was both fashionable and popular, 
it follows that, whatever our taste may be, a considera- 
tion of the subject cannot be lacking in interest. Never 
did a horticultural fashion retain its hold upon a garden- 
ing public so long as Topiary, but as fashions rarely 
come spontaneously but are rather arrived at by a kind 
of evolutionary process, so the art of Verdant Sculpture 
must have had its Early History, followed by a develop- 
ment of design limited only by the ingenuity of the 
_ gardener. Then came what one may call the Golden 
Age of Topiary, when every garden having any pre- | 
tensions whatever to importance was more or less notable 
A t 
