Garden Boundaries 
409 
he had to have what old-time cooks called judgment 
or faculty . In English gardens many specimens of 
topiary work still exist, maintained usually as relics 
of the past rather than as a modern notion of the 
beautiful. The old gardens at Levens Hall, page 
404, contain some of the most remarkable examples. 
In a few old gardens in America, especially in 
Southern towns, traces of the topiary work of early 
years can be seen; these overgrown, uncertain shapes 
have a curious influence, and the sentiment awak- 
ened is beautifully described by Gabriele d* Annun- 
zio : — - 
u We walked among evergreens, among ancient Box 
trees, Laurels, Myrtles, whose wild old age had forgotten its 
early discipline. In a few places here and there was some 
trace of the symmetrical shapes carved once upon a time 
by the gardener’s shears, and with a melancholy not unlike 
his who searches on old tombstones for the effigies of the 
forgotten dead, I noted carefully among the silent plants 
those traces of humanity not altogether obliterated.” 
The height of topiary art in America is reached in 
the lovely garden, often called the Italian garden, of 
Hollis H. Hunnewell, Esq., at Wellesley, Massa- 
chusetts. Vernon Lee tells in her charming essay 
on cc Italian Gardens ?? of the beauty of gardens with- 
out flowers, and this garden of Mr. Hunnewell is an 
admirable example. Though the effect of the black 
and white of the pictured representations shown on 
these pages is perhaps somewhat sombre, there is 
nothing sad or sombre in the garden itself. The 
clear gleam of marble pavilions and balustrades, the 
