HENDERSON’S 
PICTURESQUE GARDENS 
5B 
OLD-FASHIONED TOPIARIAN WORK 
Topiarian work is the clipping of trees, shrubs, etc., into 
artificial form. The examples delineated are modified survivals of 
an ancient English practice, which commenced with the trimming 
of hedges placed about pleasure grounds or garden enclosures 
as a protection from the winds and to secure privacy. These 
hedges were often clipped into geometrical shapes, — such as 
castle -like walls with bastions, etc. The artificiality of the hedge 
gradually led to shaping the evergreen trees and shrubs in the 
garden into spires, globes, pyramids 
and other forms, for at that period 
there was a scarcity of diversified form 
among trees, and particularly among 
evergreens, consequently there was 
nothing to do but clip to the height, 
shape or size desired to fit the gar- 
den design. During the seventeenth 
century topiary work be- 
came the prevailing fash- 
ion of formal English 
gardens, and it was then 
considered a very orna- 
mental feature, but eventu- 
ally the topiary gardener 
became so proficient that 
it led him to producing 
such extravagant forms 
from the Yew tree as 
peacocks, bears, dogs, 
deer, fish, ships and 
other grotesque objects, . 
these absurdities tending 
to the downfall of his 
"art” by creating such a 
revulsion of taste that 
the extremes of the fash- 
ion fell into disuse. The 
English Yew, however, is 
a long-lived tree, so that 
