34 HISTORY OF GARDENING. Pant I,

the lowest and longest walk from the Mount Parnassus, which consists of a grotto, or shell house, on the summit of the hill, wherein are divers water-works, and contrivances to wet the spectators.”

Cardinal Richelieu’s villa at Ruell.“ The house is small, but fairly built in form of a castle, moated round. The offices are towards the road, and over-against them are large vineyards walled in. Though the house is not of the greatest size, the gardens about it are somagnificent, that I doubt whether Italy has any exceeding it for varieties of pleasure. The garden nearest the pavilion is a parterre, having in the midst divers brass statues, perpetually spouting water into an ample basin, with other figures of the same metal; but what is most admirable is the vast enclosure, and a variety of ground in the large garden containing vineyards, corn-fields, meadows, groves,(whereof one is of perennial greens), and walks of vast lengths, so accurately kept and cultivated, that nothing can be more agreeable. On one of these walks, within a square of tall trees, is a basilisk of copper, which, managed by the fountaineer, casts water near sixty feet high, and will, of itself, move round so swiftly, that one can hardly escape wetting. This leads to the Citroniére where is a noble conserve of all those rarities; and at the end of it is the arch of Con- stantine, painted on a wall in oil, as large as the real one at Rome, so well done, that even a man skilled in aumer i: painting may mistake it for stone and sculpture. The sky and hills, which seem to be between the arches,/ Notre wee are so natural, that swallows and other birds, thinking to fly through, have dashed themselves against the Y wall. At the farther part of this walk is that plentiful, though artificial, cascade, which rolls down a very steep declivity, and over the marble steps and basins, with an astonishing noise and fury; each basin hatha jette in it, flowing like sheets of transparent glass, especially that which rises over the great shell of lead, from whence it glides silently down a channel, through the middle of a spacious gravel-walk, terminating in a grotto, Here are also fountains that cast water to a great height, and large ponds, two of which have islands for harbour of fowls, of which there is store. One of these islands has a receptacle for them, built of vast pieces of rock, near fifty feet high, grown over with moss, ivy,&c. shaded, at a competent distance, with

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tall trees; in this the fowls lay eggs and breed. We then saw a large and very rare grotto of shell-work, 0 r Format in the shape of satyrs, and other wild fancies; in the middle stands a marble table, on which a fountain of Sunt Ute plays informs of glasses, cups, crosses, fans, crowns,&c. Then the fountaineers represent a shower of we aither jor

rain, from the top, met by small jets from below. At going out, two extravagant musketeers shot us with astream of water from their musket-barrels. Before this grotto is a long pool, into which ran divers ze spouts of water from leaden escallop basins. The viewing this Paradise made us late at St. Germains.” and Lulovis! St. Germains.‘ The first building of this palace is of Charles V. called the Sage; but Francis I.(that. true virtuoso) made it complete. Speaking as to the style of magnificence then in fashion, which was with too great a mixture of the Gothic, as may be seen of what there is remaining of his in the old castle, an irregular piece as built on the old foundation, and having a moat about it. It has yet some spacious and handsome rooms of state, and a chapel neatly painted.‘The new castle is at some distance, divided from this by a court, of a lower but more modern design, built by Henry IV. To this belong six terraces, built of brick and stone, descending in cascades, towards the river, cut out of the natural hill, having under them grandly vaulted galleries; of these, four have subterraneous grots and rocks, where are represented several objects, in the manner of scenes, and other motions by force of water, shown by the light of torches only; amongst these is Orpheus, with his music, and the animals which dance after his harp; in the second, is the king and dolphin(dauphin); in the third is Neptune sounding his Trumpet, his chariot drawn by sea-horses; in the fourth, Perseus, and Andromeda; mills, hermitages, men fishing, birds chirping, and many other devices. There isalso a dry grot to refresh in, all having a fine prospect towards the river, and the goodly country about it, especially the forest. At the bottom is a parterre; the upper terrace near half a mile in length, with double declivities, arched and balustered with stone of vast and royal cost. In the pavilion of the new castle are many fair rooms well painted, and leading into a very noble garden and park, where there is a pall-mall, in the midst of which, on one of the sides, is a chapel with a stone cupola, though small, yet of a handsome order of architecture. Out of the park you go into the forest, which, being very large, is stored with deer, wild boars, wolves, and other wild game. The Tennis-court, and Cavalerizzo for the maneged horses, are also very observable.” The Count de Liancourt’s palace, in the rue de Seine,‘is well-built. Towards his study and bed- chamber joins a little garden, which, though very narrow, by the addition of a well-painted perspective, is to appearance greatly enlarged; to this there is another part, supported by arches, in which runsa stream of water, rising inthe aviary, out of astatue, and seeming to flow for some miles, by being arti- ficially continued in the painting, where it sinks down at the wall. It is a very agreeable deception. At the end of this garden isa little theatre, made to change with divers pretty scenes, and the stage so ordered that figures of men and women, painted on light boards, and cut out, are by a person who stands under- neath, made to act as if they were speaking, by guiding them, and reciting words, in different tones, as the parts require,&c.” A pretty garden at Caen,“ planted with hedges of alaternus, having at the entrance a screen of an ex- ceeding height, accurately cut in topiary work.” The gardens of the Luxembourg are near an English mile in circumference.** The parterre is, indeed, of box, but so rarely designed and accurately kept cut, that the embroidery makes a wonderful effect to} the lodgings which front it. The walks are exactly fair, long, and variously descending, and so justly planted with limes, elms, and other trees, that nothing canbe more delicious, especially that of the horn- beam hedge; which, being high and stately, buts full on the fountain.”(Memoirs, yol. i. 40-—52.) President Maison’s palace and gardens,“ between St. Germains and Paris. The palace is environed by a dry moat; the offices underground; the gardens are very excellent, with extraordinary long walks, set with elms, and anoble prospect towards the forest, and on the Seine towards Paris. Take it altogether, the meadows, walks, river, forest, corn-ground, and vineyards, I hardly saw any thing in Italy to exceed it. The iron gates are very magnificent.”(Memoirs, p. 259.)

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162. Fhe French taste in-laying out gardens may be considered as having been settled and confirmed by Le Notre during the reign of Louis XIV. Le Notre’s taste and style, Daines Barrington observes, continued in full repute for upwards of a century; and appears to have been in general vogue so late as 1771, fifty years after the introduction of the modern stylein England, However remarkable this may appear, it is a fact which does not admit of a doubt; for Millin, the editor of the Journal Encyclopédique, in a critique on the translation of Wheatley’s Observations on Modern Gardening, published that year, after the most liberal encomiums on the work, expresses his doubts as to how the modern style would be received in France, where he adds,“ Le Notre’s school is

still followed, and every rich proprietor is anxious that his garden, if it does not resemble, shall at least recall to his mind those of the court, at Versailles, Trianon, Meudon, iD and yes ean, "WS on|

Sceaux, or Clugny.”’

163. Le Notre was the most celebrated gardener that probably ever existed. If Le Notre, observes Hirschfield, had been born under any other monarch than Louis the XIV., his taste would, in all probability, never have spread, or his name been known to posterity. But that age, in which a feeling for the fine arts had begun to awake in men’s minds,

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