166 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
following extracts show. He urges the hardiness of cedars, 
and regrets they are not more grown. Perhaps it was at his 
suggestion that some were planted in the Chelsea physic garden 
in 1683. The ilex, also, he proves to be hardy by the remains 
of one in the Privy Garden, Whitehall, “ where once flourished 
a goodly tree of more than four score years.” “ Phillyrea is 
sufficiently hardy, which makes me wonder to find angustifolia 
planted in cases and so charily set into the stoves among the 
oranges and lemons.” He had “ four large round ” Phillyreas, 
“ smooth-clipped,” in his own garden at Says Court, Deptford. 1 
Under Hornbeam, he notices the “ admirable ” hedges at 
“ Hampton Court and New Park,” “ the delicious villa of the 
noble Earl of Rochester.” “ These hedges are tonsile, but 
where they are maintained to 15 or 20 feet high . . . they 
are to be kept in order with a scythe of 4 foot long, and very 
little falcated, that is, fixed in a long sneed or straight handle, 
and does wonderfully expedite the trimming.” . . . These 
hedges are great " convenience for the protection of our orange- 
trees, myrtles, and other rare perennials and exotics.” The 
laurel was so commonly used for the same purpose that 
Evelyn says “ it seems as if it had only been destined for 
hedges.” Holly for a garden-hedge he also enthusiastically 
praises : “ Is there under heaven a more glorious and refreshing 
object of the kind than an impregnable hedge of about 480 feet 
length, 9 feet high, and 5 feet in diameter, which I can show 
in my now ruined gardens at Says Court (thanks to the Czar 
of Muscovy) any time of year, glittering with its armed and 
varnished leaves.” This is quoted from the later edition of the 
Silva , and the “ ruin ” of the garden refers to the damage 
done there by Peter the Great, who lived at Sayes Court to be 
near Deptford during his visit to England (1698). He is said 
to have amused himself by being wheeled about the garden 
in a wheel-barrow, over borders and through hedges, regardless 
of consequences. In his Diary , on June 8th, 1698, Evelyn writes: 
“ I went to Deptford to see how miserably the Czar had left 
my house after three months making it his Court. I got 
Sr. Christr. Wren, the K.’s surveyor, and Mr. London, his 
gardener, to go and estimate the repairs, for which they allowed 
1 Gibson, Gardens about London, 1691. 
