Читать книгу The book of topiary онлайн

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Nevertheless, quaint gardens were formed before the time of Elizabeth, Shakespeare, Drake, Raleigh, and Gerard. A curious conceit in these old-time gardens was the formation of a mound in the pleasure grounds, where none previously existed, and this seems to have been quite the correct thing in the way of garden design even as late as Evelyn’s day, for we learn that he arranged for a “mountaine” in the family gardens at Wotton, in Surry. Leland, in his “Itinerary” (1540), refers to this feature in garden design in connection with the garden at Wrexhill Castle, near Howden, in Yorkshire. He says: “The Gardens within the mote, and the Orchards without were exceeding fair. And yn the Orchardes were mounts, opere topiorii, writhen about with degrees like the turnings in cokil shelles, to come to the top without payn.”

That Topiary had already a considerable hold upon the garden-loving public at this early date cannot be doubted. Very few of these ancient gardens remain unaltered at the present time, but in that most interesting book, “A history of Gardening in England,” the Hon. Alicia Amherst gives the plans of Sir Henry Dryden’s gardens at Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire, which show that clipped yews are prominent features, as two rows of four trees each line one of the approaches, and these trees have a diameter of about ten feet. The author states that this garden, originally made in 1550, was altered in 1708, “and has defied the changes of fashion for nearly two centuries.”