Poke in ham

Another Kiwi recently touched on the use of shrubbery as concealment. It is an old tradition, or a charter or something, dating back to the time of the Roman Empire.
Of course as pioneers it would be unreasonable to expect the Romans to have ascended straight to the acme of perfection. Still, the shields are a dead giveaway.The worst part of disguised-as-shrubbery reconnaissance work for a Legionary was being widdled on by elephants.

Not Sky-clad

As prescribed in the Calendar of Ceremonies, with Hunky-Dory the foul-mouthed misanthropic Master of Ritual providing a stream of profanity-spiced instructions, Uncle the 77^th Earl of Homeward was roused from his bed on the morn of his 12^th birthday. Ignoring his querulous eye-rubbing demands for explanations, unspeaking servitors ushered him through the north-facing Strait Gate of Homeward, past the mud hut dwellings of the Bright Carvers, and into the forest that cloaked the foothills. "The Heir of Homeward goes sky-clad," they told him when he asked for his comfortable purple dressing-gown. "The Heir of Homeward widdles on the armour in the shrubbery." A trail of corroded trophies from past enactments of the ceremony stretched far into the distance like a road into the past.

This event, fanning a spark of resentment against the weight of changeless immemorial tradition, laid down the course of Uncle's youth. It inspired the career of rebellion that would one day lead him beyond the walls of Homeward, to Oxford University, where he would steal a bicycle.

I do not believe that there is anyone else writing Gormenghast / Uncle mash-ups, so I have the field to myself. And who is to say that Mervyn Peake did not meet up with Rev. J. P. Martin at a bar one day in the late 1940s and collaborate on a joint manuscript?

Here are some Trigan Roman legionaries spying on the enemy without even a minimal Ikebana-style shrubbery disguise.

CONCEALMENT FAIL. This will not end well.