406 Old Time Gardens 
served, to form the lower boundary of a garden, 
where, laid out with a shaded, grassy walk dividing 
it from the flower beds, they form the loveliest of 
garden limits. Planted skilfully with great Art to 
look like great Nature, with edging of Elder and 
Wild Rose, with native vines and an occasional con- 
genial garden ally, they are truly unique. 
Yew was used for the most famous English hedges; 
and as neither Yew nor Holly thrive here — though 
both will grow — I fancy that is why we have ever 
had in comparison so few hedges, and have really no 
very ancient ones, though in old letters and account 
books we read of the planting of hedges on fine 
estates. George Washington tried it, so did Adams, 
and Jefferson, and Quincy. Osage Orange, Bar- 
berry, and Privet were in nurserymen’s lists, but it 
has not been till within twenty or thirty years that 
Privet has become so popular. In Southern gardens, 
Cypress made close, good garden hedges ; and Cedar 
hedges fifty or sixty years old are seen. Lilac hedges 
were unsatisfactory, save in isolated cases, as the one 
at Indian Hill. The Japan Quinces, and other of 
the Japanese shrubs, were tried in hedges in the 
mid-century, with doubtful success as hedges, though 
they form lovely rows of flowering shrubs. Snow- 
balls and Snowberries, Flowering Currant, Altheas, 
and Locust, all have been used for hedge-planting, 
so we certainly have tried faithfully enough to have 
hedges in America. Locust hedges are most grace- 
ful, they cannot be clipped closely. I saw one lovely 
creation of Locust, set with an occasional Rose Aca- 
cia — and the Locust thus supported the brittle Aca- 
