20 Xan^scape Brcbitecture 



parterre composed of earth brought together accord- 

 ing to the plan of Monsieur Le Notre, having for its 

 whole decoration but a few rows of box which never 

 distinguish the seasons by change of colour, sur- 

 rounded by vast sanded alleys, very compact and 

 very bare; such a parterre forms the delight of polite 

 society. It leaves to small cits and peasants this 

 rustic lawn, this rural turf. It requires palisades 

 erected with the line, and at the point of the shears. 

 The green shades of those tufted birches and of those 

 great oaks which were found at the birth of time are 

 in bad taste and worthy of the grossness of our fathers. 

 Is not to think thus to prefer a painted face to the 

 natural colour of a beautiful countenance? 



"Paint on one side a fashionable garden and on 

 the other one of those beautiful landscapes in which 

 nature spreads her riches undisguised; one will 

 present a very tedious object, the other will charm 

 you by its delight. You will be tired of one at first 

 glance, you will never weary of looking at the other, 

 such is the force of nature to make itself beloved in 

 spite of the pilferings and deceits of art. 



" I have no more approval of the gardens in fashion 

 than for iron screens (Clairvoies)." 



Of Charles Dufresny, 1 648-1 724, natural son of Henry 

 IV and a gardener's daughter, soi-disant rival of Le 

 Notre, creator of the gardens of Mignaux near Poissy 

 and of the Abbe Pajot near Vincennes, a writer says: 



"The first indications of the Jesuits of Chinese 



