I intend to be raised upon a bank, not steep, but gently slope,[1] of some six foot, set all with flowers. Also I understand, that this square of the garden should not be the whole breadth of the ground, but to leave on either side ground enough for diversity of side alleys; unto which the two covert alleys of the green may deliver you. But there must be no alleys with hedges at either end of this great enclosure; not at the hither end, for letting your prospect upon this fair hedge from the green; nor at the further end, for letting[2] your prospect from the hedge through the arches upon the heath.
For the ordering of the ground within the great hedge, I leave it to variety of device; advising nevertheless that whatsoever form you cast it into, first, it be not too busy,[3] or full of work. Wherein I, for
- ↑ Slope. Sloping.
- ↑ Let. To hinder; to prevent.
"No spears were there the shock to let."
Scott. The Lord of the Isles. VI. xxiii.
- ↑ Busy. Bacon goes on to define the old meaning of busy here, "full of work," elaborate, such as "images cut out in juniper or other garden stuff." It is more than likely that Bacon had in mind his father's gardens at Gorhambury. Edmund Lodge, in his Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain, Vol. II., says of Sir Nicholas Bacon,—"He built a mansion on his estate of Redgrave, and another at Gorhambury, near St. Albans, to which last he added gardens of great extent, in the contrivance and decoration of which every feature of the bad taste of the time was abundantly lavished." Topiary work, or the clipping of trees, especially the juniper pine, into regular or fantastic shapes, was much practised by the old gardeners. Trees were cut into figures representing men, hats, umbrellas, jugs, bottles, candles, birds, mortars, corkscrews, and the like. H. Inigo Triggs, in his Formal Gardens in England and Scotland (1902), illustrates by some fine plates some of this old topiary work as it is still to be seen at Levens Hall, Westmorland, at Heslington Hall, Yorkshire, at Balcarres Castle, Fifeshire, and elsewhere.
"I was led to a pretty garden, planted with edges of Alaternus, having at the entrance a skreene at an exceeding height, accurately cut in topiary worke, with well understood Architecture, consisting of pillars, niches, freezes, and other ornaments, with greate curiosity; some of the columns wreathed, others spiral, all according to art." John Evelyn. Diary. 25 March, 1644, written in Caen, France.
