Note 536 — Chapter V · GARDENING

Few of these details, except the radiating avenues and the high jets of water characteristic of Le Nôtre’s gardens, were absolutely new after 1660. Topiary work was of Roman origin. “It is said to have been invented by Matius, a friend of the emperor Augustus. The chief gardener was known as the “topiarius” and it was his none too easy task to see that the evergreens were artistically shorn” (Nichols, “English Pleasure Gardens,” p. 39). The cutting of trees and shrubs into quaint forms was introduced into England in the early Tudor period and became very popular. The clipped garden at Heslington, near York, is said to date from about 1560. In 1618 Lawson in his “A New Orchard and Garden” wrote, “Your Gardiner can frame your lesser wood to the shape of men armed in the field, ready to give battell; or swift-running Grey Hounds to chase the Deere, or hunt the Hare.” There was also early protest against such work. Bacon in his “Essay on Gardens” said, “I, for my part, do not like images cut out in juniper or other garden stuff; they be for children.” Of figured and colored knots Bacon said, “They be but toys; you may see as good sights many times in tarts.” He also objected to fantastic fountains where the water spouted forth in “feathers, drinking glasses, canopies, and the like.”