File:American homes and gardens (1910) (18158202031).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar71910newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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388 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS October, 1910 and pyramids, holly and white thorn are often used. The best results are obtained with single trees, as the treat- ment can be carried out more advantageously and with better success, whole hedges not being so susceptible to this work. Inasmuch, however, as the yew is of unusually slow growth, a period of fifty or sixty years must elapse before the shape of the tree can be considered perfect. A garden which is laid out for topiary treatment, as in the illustrations which we show, presents a rather weird and fascinating appearance. In the Levens Hall collec- tion, birds and animals are intermingled with other forma- tions, such as cups and saucers and geometrical designs. How once they lived and wherefore they are there. "Alas! that breathing \'anity should go Where pride is buried; like its very ghost Unrisen from the naked bones below. In novel flesh, clad in the silent boast Of gaudy silk, that flutters to and fro. Shedding its chilling superstition most On young and ignorant natures—as is wont To haunt the peaceful churchyard of Bedfont." Pope, who must often have seen these quaint artificial ornaments, satirized them in No. 173 of the "Guardian": Unique shapes are used to serve as arbors, and the trees "How contrary to simplicity is the modern practice of gar- are so thick that they act as a protection in the most dening! We seem to make it our study to recede from inclement weather, as well as does the ordinary type of nature not only in the various tonsure of greens into the most regular and formal shapes, but even into monstrous attempts beyond summer house. The village of Bedfont:, near London, contains some celebrated examples of the topiary art. The quaintness of its appearance is in- creased by its lit- tle Norman church, with its wooden tower and dwarf stee- ple, and its pair of trim and for- mal yew trees, cut out into the shapes of pea- cocks, with the date 1704, and the initials of the churchwardens of that time, still legible in the cropped foliage. The local tradi- tion is that they represent satiric- ally two sisters who lived at Bed- font, and who were so very haughty that they both refused the hand of some local magnate, who thus immor- talized them, be- ing "as proud as peacocks." This, however, is a legend only. These are some of the grotesque shapes with which a stiff, formal and unnatural age loved to decorate its gardens, lawns and al- leys; and they are only a "survival" of what once was a common fashion. If the peacocks have rendered the two maiden ladies above mentioned immortal, they have in their turn been immortalized by Thomas Hood, who makes them the sub- ject of one of the most serious of his early "serious" poems: "Where erst two haughty maidens used to be. In pride of plume, where plumy Death hath trod. Trailing their gorgeous velvet wantonly. Most unmeet pall, over the holy sod: There, gentle stranger, thou may'st only see Two sombre peacocks. Age, with sapient nod Marking the spot, still taries to declare
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A simple design showing the result of continuous clipping and trimming the reach of the art itself; we run into sculpture, and are yet bet- ter pleased to have our trees in the most awk- ward figures of men and animals than in the most regular of their own. ... A citi- zen is no sooner proprietor of a couple of yews, but he entertains thoughts of erect- ing them into giants, like those of Guildhall. I know an eminent cook who beauti- fied h i s country country seat with the coronation- dinner in greens (e V e r g r eens), where you see the champion flour- ishing on horse- back at one end of the table, and the queen in per- petual y o u t h at the other." And he adds a list of some fifteen or sixteen subjects cut in evergreens, from Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark down to Queen Elizabeth, which are to be disposed of by an "eminent town gardener" of his acquaintance. Most of the specimens in England remain as curiosities, but it can hardly be called a lost art in view of the fact that we even find modern examples in this country. In a number of Southern towns good examples may be found. Califor- nia also has some specimens of very good work, but the acme of topiary art is reached in the garden of the Hunne- well Estate at Wellesley, Mass. Mr. Hunnewell's success has been the more notable, since in England the results have been achieved with yews, which do not thrive in the New England climate. He used, therefore, such trees as were suitable to the conditions, and employed pine, spruce, hem- lock, junipers, arbor-vitae, cedars and Japanese retino- sporas. When planted these trees were very small, and for

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