“Little low hedges, round like welts, with some pyramids, I like well; and in some places fair columns, upon frames of carpenters’ work.”—Bacon. Just how far back in the history of gardens and gardening the art of Topiary was first practised there is no means of telling, but we know that gardening was first practised as a source of food supply, and that pleasure gardening did not occupy a very prominent position among the arts and sciences until civilisation had made considerable advances. Architecture had progressed in a wonderful manner and reached a high state of perfection long before horticulture assumed any great importance. To use Lord Bacon’s elegant words, “when ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to build stately, sooner than to garden finely, as if gardening were the greater perfection.” This being so, it does not seem so very unreasonable to presume that the ancient builders of stately edifices would not in designing the surrounding gardens, plant trees and shrubs likely to mask, soften, or detract in any way from the architectural features created at so great an expenditure of time and money. They would the rather be likely to plant the more formal trees near the mansion, keeping the more graceful at a distance. The love of the formal among the Greeks may be evidenced from the writings of Theocritus, the pastoral poet of Greece, who compares the beauty of Helen to that of a Cypress. Following up this idea, a reason for keeping evergreen and other trees closely clipped is apparent. From the mere clipping of these subjects so as to keep them in harmony with the architecture, to the cutting of evergreens into fantastic shapes, is not a very wide transition, but whether the latter style was first adopted by the Grecian or the Roman gardeners does not appear. A FARM-YARD FOWL AT COMPTON WYNYATES A “LEATHERN BOTTEL” CUT IN BOX AT COMPTON WYNYATES On the authority of Martial we learn that the art of Topiary was first introduced to the Romans by Cneus Matius. Matius was the friend of Julius CÆsar and a particular favourite of Augustus, but whether he originated or borrowed the idea we know not. As a court favourite, however, he must have had ample opportunity for propagating this particular method of gardening, and doubtless then, as now, a fashion set at court was quickly followed by all who wished to be up-to-date. Good or bad, the taste spread, and even such a man of taste and letters as Pliny the Roman Consul considered it quite the proper thing to use Topiary work extensively in his famous Tuscan Villa. In a letter written by Pliny the Younger to his friend Apollinaris (Ep. v. 6) is a fine description of this garden. Melmoth’s translation pictures the front It must not, however, be assumed that the Romans were entirely without appreciation of natural beauty and scenery. Far from it. But they loved lavish displays of art, and this also led them to use the gardens immediately surrounding their dwellings as a gallery in which to arrange their collections of sculptured trees. Roman poets and philosophers alike have left in their writings ample evidence that the beauties of nature were greatly admired by their countrymen, but at that period, when Rome was the mistress of the world, Italy was well supplied with natural sylvan scenery, and consequently, where it was not at all necessary to cultivate this particular form of gardening, the desire for contrast and display led to a very widespread adoption of the art of Topiary. LEVENS GARDENS But it was much later than this that Topiary commenced to be one of the chief features of garden design, for with the corruption of the ruling powers came the decline of the Roman Empire, and then followed the Dark Ages wherein the clash of arms, coupled with deep superstition, put gardening, as a pleasure, out of the question, so that except in some few cases it was only conducted at all because of the necessity of providing a meagre food supply. For long, long years war-like occupations were, either from choice or necessity, in the ascendant. But there presently came a time when peace again reigned and arts and commerce flourished; gardening revived, and in Italy where still remained many examples of the grandeur of Ancient Rome, it soon flourished in the establishments of the wealthy princes. Although Charlemagne revived the art of gardening in France in the eighth century, he was not the kind of man to care much for garden display; he rather introduced useful fruits and encouraged the cultivation of herbs and fruits wholly from an economic point of view. So we are compelled by the lack of historical Loudon points out that the Roman style of gardening was lost in England when the Romans abandoned this country at the beginning of the fifth century, but he surmises that, following the revival of gardening in France by Charlemagne, William the Conqueror would probably re-introduce it at the end of the eleventh century. Some little progress was made in the reigns of Henry I. and Henry II., and it was the former who formed the Park at Woodstock (1123), probably the first of which there is any record. In accord with the prevailing taste, it contained a labyrinth, which appears to have chiefly constituted the Bower so intimately associated with the fate of Rosamund. But during the twelfth century there was very little of either design or taste in the arrangement of gardens. These latter were of limited extent and, because of the feudal broils that enlivened the monotony of existence, they were for the most part attached only to the larger establishments, and in them were confined within the Glacis, or first line of defence, which was a necessity of the times. Beyond the inevitable moat, orchards arose, wherein the horticulturally inclined among the baron’s retainers could indulge their taste for ornamental gardening; a taste which consisted then, according to Johnson, and continued to a much later age, “in having plants cut into monstrous figures, labyrinths, etc.” BOATS, PYRAMIDS AND PEACOCK It was in the early part of the fourteenth century that Pierre de Crescent, of Bologna, wrote his work on Agriculture, wherein he describes the kinds of pleasure gardens suitable for various classes of the community, and a suggestion of formality of design and the use of Topiary is made in his observation that a royal garden should contain a menagerie, and also an aviary placed among thickets, arbors and vines. |