The dawn of the sixteenth century saw the commencement of what may be called the Golden Age of Topiary. It was also the beginning of an age of romance, of stirring deeds, of great discoveries; an age when men of genius were numerous, when history was being rapidly made, and when the art of gardening began to flourish freely. Though the times were stirring ones and there was not always “peace within our borders,” commerce grew and wealth increased, so that gardening became more and more popular and steadily grew more and more elaborate in design. To the existing style were added the extravagances of the French and the formalities of the Dutch schools, but these things did not all come to pass at once. [Illustration: THE HARLINGTON YEW (_As clipped 1729–1790_) ] 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.”