Sum EMENT TO 



826 



GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



IDECEMBER 17, !8 9 8 



literature and taste, delighted in what the mob now scarcely admire in a 

 college garden. All the ingredients of Pliny's garden correspond 

 exactly with those laid out by Loudon and Wise on Dutch principles ; so 

 that nothing is wanting but a parterre to make a garden in the reign of 

 Trajan serve for the description of one in the reign of King William." 



It was, however, as easy for Walpole to denounce Roman taste in 

 gardening as it is for present-day critics to condemn the prevailing 

 fashions in horticulture ; but such criticism may be considered as pro- 

 ceeding from too limited views of the subject. The Roman gardens were 

 regarded as scenes of art, and treated as such ; and, therefore, it does 

 not follow that the owners were without a proper appreciation of the 

 charms of natural scenery. As Loudon very properly observes, where all 

 around is Nature, artificial scenes, even of the most formal description, 

 will please, and may be approved by the justest taste, from their novelty, 

 contrast, and other associations. " If," asks Loudon, " all England were 

 a scattered forest, like ancient Italy, and cultivation were to take place 

 only in the open glades, or plains, where would be the beauty of our 

 parks and picturesque grounds?" With the decline of the Roman 

 Empire, which is considered 

 as having commenced with 

 the reign of the Emperors, 

 the taste for 



eleven years later the sum of ^14 was paid for painting 760 varHc *f 1 

 ing green and white in " Antyke oiled colours." 7 yards ° f ra,U 



During the first half of the sixteenth century topiaiy work was intro- 

 duced into England, and it acquired popularity with such extreme 

 rapidity that examples were soon met with in all gardens of anv ore 

 tensions, and it obtained so strong a hold upon the community that for 

 at least one and a half centuries it was the chief feature of the EnelUh 

 garden. That topiary work was terribly overdone goes without savin? 

 for it has ever been the practice to carry fashions to the point of 

 absurdity, and the formality and finish characteristic of closely shaven 

 trees afforded so pleasing a contrast to the roughness which had pre- 

 viously prevailed that owners of gardens readily made the mistake of 

 attaching undue importance to clipped trees for the adornment of the 

 pleasance. Leland records in his " Itinerary," published in the first half 

 of the sixteenth century, numerous examples of the art of topiary, and he 

 mentions that at Uskelle village, a short distance from Newton, there 

 was u a goodly orchard with walks opere topiario," and that at Wrisehill 

 Castle there was " an orchard with mounts opere topiario writhen about 



in degrees like cokilshells 



1 



life 



taste tor a country 

 underwent a material 



change, and in 

 that followed the 



the ages 

 fall of 



the Republic the interest 

 in gardening and other arts 

 died out in proportion to 

 the removal of the means 



for 



The 



enjoying them, 

 art of culture was preserved 

 the 



by 

 dark 



ages, 

 fourteenth 



monks during the 



and in the 



there 



century 

 was a material change for 

 the better in the condition 

 of Italy, accompanied by a 

 revival of interest in the 

 gentle art of gardening. 

 At an early period of this 

 revival the famous gardens 

 of Lorenzo de Medici and 



I>ernand 



Rucelli 



were 



formed, and these were ar- 

 ranged on the same lines 

 as those of Pliny's villa. 

 Gardens, geometrical in 

 design and furnished with 

 examples of the topiary art, 

 had become general 

 throughout, Italy, and For- 

 syth describes a garden at 

 Genoa, in which an illustra- 

 tion of the chase was given 

 in verdant sculpture. A 

 large amount of evidence 

 of the general practice of 

 shearing trees in Italy 

 might be given, but it must 

 suffice for my present pur- 

 pose to state that in the 

 second half of the 

 teenth century Evelyn 

 visited Italy and described 

 a considerable number of 

 gardens, and in his account 

 of those of the palace of 

 Hieronymo del Negro he 

 sates that " on the terrace, 

 or hilly garden, there is a 



of 



seven 



grove ot stately 

 among which are 



shepherds, and 

 beasts. ' 



trees, 

 sheep, 

 wild 



to come to the top without 

 paine." Mounts of the de- 

 scription mentioned by Le- 

 land were about this time 

 made in a large number 

 of the more important 

 gardens, the walks being 

 flanked with closely clipped 

 hedges or trees. 



Topiary received, as a 

 matter of course, consider- 

 able attention from writers 

 on _ horticultural subjects 

 during the seventeenth 

 century, and Lawson re- 

 marks in his "Complete 

 Gardener," 



1618, "Your gardener can 

 form your lesser wood to 



of men and 



published in 



to 



the shape ot men 

 animals in the field ready 

 give battle, or swift 



running greyhounds to 

 chase the deer or Lunt the 

 hare. This kind of hunt- 

 ing shall not wast your 

 corn, nor much of your 

 coyne." Lawson could not 

 have had much experience 



or he 



that 



of clipped trees, 

 would have known 

 while a verdant pack with 

 their accompanying horse- 

 men will not beat down the 

 crops of corn, they cannot 

 be kept in first-class con- 



without a con- 



Gervase 

 his 



dition 

 siderable outlay. 



Markham 



gives in 



Husbandman," 



The 

 topiary 



practice 

 art had 



of the 



in the 



A VERDANT PEACOCK, EL\ ASTON CASTLE. 



" English 

 published in 1635, numerous 



figures of knots, mazes, 

 and labyrinths, with refe- 

 rence to which he observes: 

 "Many other adornations 

 and beautifyings there are 

 which belong to the setting 

 of a curious garden, but 

 forasmuch none are more 

 rare or more esteemed than 

 these I have set down as 

 being the best ornaments 

 of the best garden of this 

 kingdom, I think them suf- 

 ficient for every husband- 



• nether of better 

 which delighteth 



man or 



meantime extended far beyond the Italian boundaries, and was adopted 



somewhat extensively 

 sixteenth 



in France and Holland. It was not until the 



quality which dengniem 



in the beauty and well-trimming of his grounds." Le Notre, the accom- 

 niuwi k;„vj„ 1 & j Zxr t *iiiid viv exercised in nib 



and this 



century that 



is 



clipped trees came into vogue in this country, 



n0t sur P risin g> as it was not until the termination of the 

 \\ ars of the Roses, towards the end of the fifteenth 

 Henry VII., the 



and 



that gardening in 

 of internecine 



first of the Tudor line, had 



century, 

 ascended the throne, 



any form obtained attention. With a cessation 

 , wars a new style of architecture was adopted, and 



tne garden was no longer confined within the moat with which houses 



This extension of 

 in the arrangement 

 ornamental plants, 

 change were flower 

 considerable degree 



use for a long time. Gardening made 



named monarch, and 



numerous alterations 



of importance were in those days surrounded, 

 area gave greater scope for the exercise of taste 



Tfcft! fft' and a!so for the cultivation of 

 h.^ Zl? ^ introductions consequent on this 



Sf nnnni > *?* 1<>W railin ** acquired a 



of popularity, and remained in 



plished and' highly popular" gardener of Louis XIV., 

 day a considerable influence upon landscape gardening in tfciscoumij. 

 and here, as in France, did much to popularise topiary. * 

 The most noteworthy example in England of the ^ ut « 5l > f 

 gardening, in which the topiary art attained its highest J c f^ c 

 development, is at Levens Hall, Westmoreland, the residence ot uap» 



Bagot, where no material change has been made in the g r °™ a * J t 

 1 — ^ — fe . be seen tbe lorm 



at 



in° ?he d ™ b r U i - P ^ 8 h reSS dU,ing the rei S n of above- 

 in the year 1,22 his successor, Henry VIII made 



™rf ,hlr er g ? rdenS , at Ham Pton Court, when railed beds were used ; 

 and their populanty for some years afterwards is shown by the fact that 



j o — »m anora 



clipped trees they contain. 10 paru«-uxa.« vu^heib 



much space, and it must suffice to mention Queen Elizabeth 



