CROSSES AND JUGS IN YEW 〃 〃 38 (_By courtesy of Messrs Cheal_)
VARIOUSLY SHAPED YEW TREES 〃 〃 40 (_By courtesy of Messrs Cutbush_)
A PEACOCK CUT IN YEW AT COMPTON WYNYATES 〃 〃 41 (_Photo. by Mr F. Goode_)
OLD-FASHIONED BOX GARDEN, CHASTLETON HOUSE 〃 〃 42 (_By courtesy of Miss Whitmore Jones_)
COTTAGE AT DITCHEAT, SOMERSET 〃 〃 44 (_Photo. by Mr Hulbert_)
CROSS IN YEW IN ST BONIFACE CHURCHYARD, BONCHURCH, ISLE OF WIGHT 〃 〃 48
YEWS AT MONTACUTE, SOMERSET 〃 〃 50 (_Photo, by Mr F. Goode_)
THE POST OFFICE, DITCHEAT 〃 〃 52 (_Photo, by Mr Hulbert_)
OLD EXAMPLE OF TOPIARY IN BOX AT COMPTON WYNYATES 〃 〃 54 (_Photo, by Mr F. Goode_)
A VERDANT PEACOCK 〃 〃 60 (_Photo, by Mr Charles Thonger_)
SEAT AT THE PRIORY, GLASTONBURY 〃 〃 62 (_Photo, by Mr Hulbert_)
LEVENS GARDENS: UMBRELLA, INDIAN WIGWAM, AND EAST WALK 〃 〃 66
ARM-CHAIR IN BOX AT COMPTON WYNYATES 〃 〃 68 (_Photo. by Mr F. Goode_)
THE COTTAGER’S PRIDE 〃 〃 70 (_Photo. by Mr F. Goode_)
A SWAN IN BOX AT COMPTON WYNYATES 〃 〃 72 (_Photo. by Mr F. Goode_)
COTTAGE TOPIARY AT NORTH WEALD, ESSEX 〃 〃 72
LEVENS GARDENS: SHOWING LETTER B AND LION 〃 〃 76
NOTE.—_The Publisher will be glad if readers will send him, at Vigo Street, W., photographs or notes of any remarkable specimens of Topiary, for inclusion in a new edition._
It is extremely fortunate that the Editor made no limitations, beyond that of space, when giving me the invitation to contribute a historical account of the Art of Topiary, as a sort of preface to the practical advice given in later chapters by Mr Gibson, who has charge of the wonderful collection of clipped trees at Levens Hall. This is fortunate, because it would have been difficult either to wholly praise or wholly blame an art that for at least a century and a half provided English gardens with their outstanding feature. It were easy for us to dismiss the whole subject of Topiary by affecting a great superiority and referring to it only as a monument of perverted taste, but that would neither provide interest nor give instruction, and it is hoped that both these ends may be served so far as the space at disposal will permit.
As it is an undoubted fact that for about one hundred and fifty years Topiary was both fashionable and popular, it follows that, whatever our taste may be, a consideration of the subject cannot be lacking in interest. Never did a horticultural fashion retain its hold upon a gardening public so long as Topiary, but as fashions rarely come spontaneously but are rather arrived at by a kind of evolutionary process, so the art of Verdant Sculpture must have had its Early History, followed by a development of design limited only by the ingenuity of the gardener. Then came what one may call the Golden Age of Topiary, when every garden having any pretensions whatever to importance was more or less notable according to the degree of formality found in its design and furnishing. The inevitable reaction followed next, and had its beginning in a Crusade which found able supporters in those two brilliant essayists and satirists, Addison and Pope. The old order changed, and considering its age, it changed with a rapidity for which there seems to be no parallel in horticulture. No doubt many trees were permitted to grow naturally after years of close cropping and carving, but doubtless also many thousands were uprooted and destroyed by the landscape gardeners who were practising—notably Bridgeman and Kent—when the decline of Topiary set in. And not only were clipped trees destroyed, but many a splendid close trimmed hedge of box and yew was swept away, leaving the garden unsheltered and unsecluded. Extremes met, as was but natural, when once the tide of fashion turned, and it has been left for the present times to properly adjust the balance between extreme formality on the one hand and too close a copy of nature on the other.