Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-11-16
GARDENING.
ANCIENT AND MODERN FARMS
OF TOPIARY WORK.
odd Conceits of Floral Ornamental
tion Among the ROmans-Floral
Representations of Birds,
Beasts and Buildings.

DedSUS anu
Most of the famous conceits of garden
ers are very ancient; and there can be no
doubt whatever that the western nations
learned topiary work from the Romans
not directly, perhaps, but from the Latin
literature. That the Romans were very
fond of filling their gardens with birds,
beasts and buildings in yew, box and
juniper, and regarded the fashioning of
these things as an art, is indicated by the
special name, topiarus, which they gave
to the gardener who made such work
mis- especial business. Pliny speaks with
evident pleasure of the forms of animals
into which his box hedges had been
trimmed. "There is parterre before
the house in which different figures are
plot, little raised; and beyond it the
box repre-, ents ditferents animals looking
at each other" The Romans were vain
people, and their vanity sometimes took
the form of having the letters which
composed their name cut in box along
side the alleys in their gardens. Accord
ing to Madame de Stael. the Roman
gardeners of her day still practised this
curious art; but there is very little
topiary work left now at Rome or e,se-
where. To cut a hedge of box or yew
into the semblance of a castle. a beast, a
giant, or a birds nest, and to keep it
trimmed so that it never looked ragged
and always remained the same size, re-
quired constant care, some amount of
taste, and the greatest nicely of hand and
eye. When these conditions were full
filled, topiary work would last as long as
there was life in the evergreens; no short
span of time, for there are still some few
gardens in England containing examples
of this curious elaboration which must
have been planted early in the seven
teenth century.
When topiary adornments became
fashionable in this country is very un-
certain. 1t has frequently been stated
that William IL. brought them into
vogue; but we have seen that they were
familiar to Bacon, who wrote his essay
"Of Gardens" in 1928; and there is little
doubt that they were to be found in gar
dens as early as the reign of Henry VIII.
From the time of Elizabeth until well
into the eighteenth century no gentle
mans garden was complete without
few figures cut in yew, box or holly.
Whence we obtained the fashion is by no
means clear; but it is not unlikely that
the dilgent study of the classics which
obtained during the later Tudor SOW
erigns may have suggested it. The
Elizabethans loved what they termed
"conceits," " and the liking for topiary
work is assuredly a conceit if ever there
was one Moreover, this kind of thing
-sombre and sometimes not undignifed
-harmonlzed exceedingly well with the
stately Elizabethan country homes,
and the builders of those houses
knew it. Before the middle of the
eighteenth century the taste began to
wane after reign of nearly two hun
dred years. The topiary artist, not con-
tent with clipping his hedges into the
semblance of ordinary and familiar
things, by degrees gave such loose rein
to his imagination that his creations
were laughing stock, and gardens,
from beng over elaborated, became mere
ragged wildernesses in which 'sim-
plicity" in its most exaggerated forms
was supreme. Pope gives an example of
the lengths to which topiary work was
carried. 81 know an eminent cook" he
writes in one of his letters, ''who beau
titled his country seat with coronation
dinner in green's, where you see the
champion fourishing on horseback at one
end of the table, and the Queen in per-
petual youth at the other" Some one
else had st. George and the dragon cut
out in box. est. Georges arm is not
quite long enough to strike the dragon,
but will be grown by next April. "
Casaubon relates that in his youth he
saw in garden near Paris representa-
tion of the siege of Troy, with the at
fashioned in topiary work. A garden in
the neighborhood of Chartres, a German
traveller records, was almost equally
elaborate Here was the Seven Wise
Men of Greece and the Labors of Her
cules, illustrated with Latin inscriptions,
all cut out of living verdure. In the
same garden were the Three Graces sur
rounded by the motto Gratia gratiam
part, and the heather deities banqueting
at Widespread table. The German
traveller was in raptures, and tells how
impressed he was with the "ingenuty
and industry of man, to which nothing
forms an insuperable obstacle"
Very few examples of this curious
taste now remain in English gardens.
There are some at Haddon hall and at
Stonyhurst, and at the famous house of
LeVens hall, near Kendall, there is still
an exceedingly fine collection. Here are
trees cut like gigantic chessmen, and all
manner of. conceits in yew, holly and
evergreens. Two of the principal figures
are king with his crown on his head
and a queen with her arms akimbo."
These works date back probably to the
early part of the seventeenth century.
1t is greatly to be hoped that the new
specimens of the ingenuity of our an
cestors in this direction which still re-
main here and there in country house
gardens will not be destroyed. Some
enterprising gardener may yet revive the
fashion, and few models to copy from
would be invaluable. st. James Gazette.
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