DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19489#0016
xiv THE FORMAL GARDEN IN ENGLAND
On the subject of dipt trees Mr. Robinson
becomes violent. He is positively contumelious
to the late J. D. Sedding, because the latter said
that if he wished to cut a tree he should have
no scruple in cutting it to any shape that took
his fancy. What Sedding was really contending
for was complete liberty of individual expression,
that if a man had an idea in his head, instead of
allowing it to be stifled by pedantic rules, he
should be encouraged to express it ; even if the
result was bizarre, it would at least express some
personal feeling, and a garden was of all places
the fittest for this free play of fancy. In
principle I think Sedding was perfectly right.
As to the practice of clipping generally, Mr.
Robinson as usual misrepresents us. We did not
say, as he implies, that because a yew tree is a
yew tree it must be dipt. In certain positions
and for certain purposes it should be dipt
freely, but noble trees such as that shown on
p. 56 of Mr. Robinson's book should of course
be left alone. Mr. Robinson's view that yews
and similar trees should only be dipt to form
hedges seems reasonable, if only it was extended
far enough to include groves, archways^ buttresses,
and an obelisk or two of dipt work ; but I demur
to the extraordinary assertion (p. 50, Garden
Design) that " the ugliest things in the fair land
On the subject of dipt trees Mr. Robinson
becomes violent. He is positively contumelious
to the late J. D. Sedding, because the latter said
that if he wished to cut a tree he should have
no scruple in cutting it to any shape that took
his fancy. What Sedding was really contending
for was complete liberty of individual expression,
that if a man had an idea in his head, instead of
allowing it to be stifled by pedantic rules, he
should be encouraged to express it ; even if the
result was bizarre, it would at least express some
personal feeling, and a garden was of all places
the fittest for this free play of fancy. In
principle I think Sedding was perfectly right.
As to the practice of clipping generally, Mr.
Robinson as usual misrepresents us. We did not
say, as he implies, that because a yew tree is a
yew tree it must be dipt. In certain positions
and for certain purposes it should be dipt
freely, but noble trees such as that shown on
p. 56 of Mr. Robinson's book should of course
be left alone. Mr. Robinson's view that yews
and similar trees should only be dipt to form
hedges seems reasonable, if only it was extended
far enough to include groves, archways^ buttresses,
and an obelisk or two of dipt work ; but I demur
to the extraordinary assertion (p. 50, Garden
Design) that " the ugliest things in the fair land