40 THE HISTORY OF GARDENING. 



a round labyrinth were such capital ingredients of a garden formerly, 

 that in Du Cerceau's architecture, who lived in the time of Charles 

 IX. and Henry III., there is scarce a ground-plot without one of 

 each. The enchantment of antique appellations has consecrated a 

 pleasing idea of a royal residence, of which we now regret the extinc- 

 tion. Havering-in-the-Bower, the jointure of many dowager queens, 

 conveys to us the notion of a romantic scene. 



In Kip's Views of the Seats of our Nobility and Gentry, we see 

 the same tiresome and returning uniformity. Every house is ap- 

 proached by two or three gardens, consisting perhaps of a gravel-walk 

 and two grass-plats, or borders of flowers. Each rises above the 

 other by two or three steps, and as many walls and terraces and so 

 many iron gates, that we recollect those ancient romances, in which 

 every entrance was guarded by nymphs or dragons. 



Yet though these and such preposterous inconsistencies prevailed 

 from age to age, good sense in this country had perceived the want 

 of something at once more grand and more natural. These reflec- 

 tions, and the bounds set to the waste made by royal spoilers, gave 

 origin to Parks. They were contracted forests, and extended gardens. 

 Hentzuer says, that, according to Rous of Warwick, the first park 

 was that at Woodstock. If so, it might be the foundation of a legend 

 that Henry II. secured his mistress in a labyrinth: it was no doubt 

 more difficult to find her in a park than in a palace, where the intri- 

 cacy of the woods and various lodges buried in covert might conceal 

 her actual habitation. 



It is more extraordinary that having so long ago stumbled on the 

 principle of modern gardening, we should have persisted in retaining 

 its reverse, symmetrical and unnatural gardens. That parks were 

 rare in other countries, Hentzner, who travelled over great part of 

 Europe, leads us to suppose, by observing that they were common in 

 England. In France they retain the name, but nothing is more 

 different both in compass and disposition. Their parks are usually 

 square or oblong inclosures, regularly planted with walks of chestnuts 

 or limes, and generally every large town has one for its public 

 recreation. 



(To be continued.) 



