It is most probable that the Old and Formal English Gardens as we know or imagine them, were the development of at least two hundred years, and probably the type had not been reached until the reign of Charles II., notwithstanding such gardens are frequently alluded to as Elizabethan. This idea seems the more reasonable after a perusal of Withington’s “Elizabethan England,” for though the Editor gives us Harrison’s description of Gardens and Orchards, Woods and Marshes, Parks and Warrens, there is never a word that can be construed into a reference to Topiary, not even in his account of “the palaces belonging to the prince.”
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 The author states that this garden, originally made in 1550, was altered in 1708, “and has defied the changes of fashion for nearly two centuries.”
Gerard (1545–1607), the famous old Herbalist who was gardener to Lord Burghley in the reign of Elizabeth, does not enlighten us as to the use of clipped trees, but Parkinson, another and equally famous Herbalist, who was born in 1567 and died about 1640, does give us a little information on the subject. Parkinson was Apothecary to James I., and Charles II. made him Botanicus Regius Primarius; he therefore had the advantage of exceptional opportunities for studying the plants of his time and their uses. Indeed some of the quaintest things ever printed are the accounts of the “Virtues” of the several parts of the plants described by Parkinson and by Gerard. Pointing out that the yew was largely used both for “shadow and an ornament,” Parkinson seems to regret that the privet had not received proper attention at the hands of Topiarists simply because of its widespread use as a hedge plant, and he advocates its further employment by remarking that “to make hedges or arbours in gardens ... it is so apt that no other can be like unto it, to be cut, lead, and drawn into what forme one will, either of beasts, birds, or men armed or otherwise.”
Because of its comparatively slow rate of growth the yew has been the subject usually employed by topiarists, while box is a good second in point of popularity. Both these trees or shrubs have the additional merit of longevity. Wordsworth points out both the slow growth and longevity of the yew in his lines:—
“There is a yew-tree, pride of Lorton Vale,
Which to this day stands single, in the midst
Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore,
Not loth to furnish weapons for the bands
Of Umfraville or Percy ere they marched