Rr I,

on the

loated hough

Italy Ing In of the Zarden of vast Walks, er Near iS leads it Con. illed in arches, inst the

you go

1 game.

id bed- ective, runs a ig arti- mn, At ordered - S, as the

f an eX- , indeed, effect to e Dorn- oned by Iks, set

ier, the ceed it,

settled style, - and uction

which

rerity+

ninds,

Boox I. GARDENING IN FRANCE. 35 together with the personal character of this monarch, was favorable to pomp and brilliancy. The nation and the court wished to be dazzled and enchanted by novelty and

singularity; and though there certainly was nothing in Le Notre’s manner that had not before been displayed in France and Italy, and with the exception of parterres, even by the Romans, yet the grand scale and sumptuous expense of the plans surpassed every thing before seen in France, and produced precisely the desired end. His long clipt alleys, triumphal arches, richly decorated and highly wrought parterres; his fountains and cascades, with their grotesque and strange ornaments; his groves, full of architecture and gilt trellises; his profusion of statues and therms; all these wonders springing up in a desert-looking open country, dazzled and enchanted every class of observers. Le Notre was educated an architect, and had attained his fortieth year before he finished his first work in the rural department of his profession, the garden of Vaur le Vicompte, afterwards V. le Villars, and now(1823) Waux Praslin. The king, enchanted with this decoration, made Le Notre his controller-general of buildings and director of gardens, loaded him with presents, gave him a patent of nobility, and made him Knight of the order of Saint Michael. His principal works are Versailles, which cost nearly 200 millions of francs; Trianon, Meudon, Saint Cloud, Sceaux, Chantilly, and the celebrated terrace of Saint Germains. The gardens of the Tuilleries, the Champs Elysées, and many others were either formed by him or improved from his designs. In 1678 he went to Italy, where he furnished the plans of several gardens, particularly those of the villas Pamphili and Ludoyisi. England, Sweden, and all Europe adopted his manner. He died in 1700.(Hirschfield, tom. v. 298.)

164. Lhe gardens of Versailles, the grand effort of Le Notre, have been so frequently described, and are so generally known, that we shall only quote one or two opinions concerning them. lirschfield considers them not as models of taste, but as models of a particular class or character of gardens. Gray the poet was struck with their splendor when filled with company, and when the water-works were in full action. Lord Kaimes says they would tempt one to believe that nature was below the notice of a great monarch, and therefore monsters must be created for him as being more astonish- ing productions. Bradley says,‘ Versailles is the sum of every thing that has been done in gardening.” Agricola, a German author, declares(Phil. Treat. on Agr. Trans. by Bradley,) that the sight of Versailles gave him a foretaste of Paradise. Our opinion coincides with Gray’s:‘ Such symmetry,”’ as Lord Byron observes,“is not for soli- tude.” During the Revolution, it was proposed that the palace and gardens should be sold as national property; but M. Le Roy, the architect, greatly to his honor, stepped forward and represented that the palace might be usefully employed for public purposes, and the garden rendered productive of food for the people.« This satisfied the citizens: a military school was established in the palace; and by planting some of the parterres with apple-trees, and others with potatoes, the garden was saved.” Niell was in- formed, that by calculation the water-works of Versailles, which are not played off oftener than eight or ten times a-year, cost 2001. per hour. There is an orange-tree here“ semé in 1421,” and thirty feet high.(Hort. Tour, 409. et seq.)

165, Le Notre’s successor was Dufregnoy, controller of buildings; his taste differed considerably from that of his predecessor, and he is said to have determined on inventing a style different and more picturesque. He preferred unequal surfaces, and sometimes at- tempted these by art. His style had something of the modern English manner, but his projects were rarely carried into execution. He was accused of being two ex- pensive; but it is more probable that the chief objection to his taste was the continued prevalence of that of his predecessor. However, he constructed, in a style superior to that of Le Notre, the gardens of the Abbé Pajot, near Vincennes, and in the Faubourg Saint Antoine, two other gardens of his own, now known under the names of Moulin, and of Chemincreux. Marly has been erroneously attributed to Dutfresnoy, but it was constructed from the plans of the architect Drusé, controller of the works at St. Ger- mains. The garden of Bagnolet is the principal work of Desgodetz, a relation of Le Notre. Chapelle d’Isle and the brothers Mansard, and other architects, at that time constructed several gardens in France, but on the general plan of that of Le Notre. Millin considers Dufresnoy as an artist of much greater genius than Le Notre, and more attached to natural beauties, though less known by his talent for designing gardens than by his comedies,

166. The English style of gardening began to pass into France, after the peace of 1762, and was soon afterwards pursued with the utmost enthusiasm. Hirschfield. af- firms that they set about destroying the ancient gardens, and replanting them in the English manner, with a warmth more common to the mania of imitation than the genius of invention. Even a part of the gardens of Versailles were removed, as De Lille la- ments(Les Jardins, 4th edit. p- 40.), to make way for a young plantation@ l’ Angloise. Dufresnoy, as we have already stated, had been bold enough to depart from the former style, and Gabriel Thouin, in the preface to his Plans Raisonnés des Jardins,&c.(1818)

9°