Chris Crowder, the head gardener at Levens Hall, was kind enough to end me these pictures of the beautiful topiary hedges at Otterington Hall in North Yorkshire. Designed in the arts and crafts style, they date back to to approximately 1900. Otterington is not generally open to the public but they do have very occasional open days when the gardens can be viewed. I wanted to use these in the colour section in the book, but unfortunately they are not quite a high enough resolution, so instead I thought I would put them up here.
These are rather reminiscent of the Easter Island heads, emerging from a background rather than standing free – but evocative nonetheless of those extraordinary cultural remnants.
Yes, I hadn’t seen them that way, but now you mention it there is a resemblance.