CHARLES DUFRESNY 127 



is not at all the case. On the contrary, by a rule I find very 

 general where nature is fertile and aisee, art is coarser and more 

 unknown, as in this matter of gardens. This happens from the 

 fact that when Nature is so excellent a gardener, if I may so 

 express it, there is nothing for art to do. The Gardens of the 

 Persians consist commonly of a grand alley or straight avenue - 

 in the centre, planted with plane (the zinzar, or Chenar of the 

 East), which divides the garden into two parts. There is a ' 

 basin of water in the middle, proportionate to the garden, and 

 two other lesser ones on the two sides. The space between 

 them is sown with a mixture of flowers in natural confusion, 

 and planted with fruit trees and roses; and this is the whole 

 of the plan and execution. They know nothing of parterres 

 and cabinets of verdure, labyrinths, terraces and such other 

 ornaments of our gardens. The reason of which is, that the 

 Persians do not walk in their gardens, as we do ; but content 

 themselves with having the view of them, and breathing the 

 fresh air. For this purpose they seat themselves in some part 

 of the garden as soon as they come into it, and remain there 

 till they go out. — Travels into Persia (1686). 



" Of the older travellers (in Persia) the palm will be conceded, 

 nemi?ie contradicefite, to the French Huguenot, and English Knight, 

 Chardin. He is apt to exaggerate, and he cannot invariably be 

 relied upon, but he is always painstaking, frequently ingenious, 

 and not seldom profound." — ffo?i. George N. Ciirzon. ''Persia'' 

 (1892). 



— •A/\/\rv — 



Said to be descended from a natural son of Henry IV. and the wife of a CHARLES 

 gardener ; a very irregular man in every way ; improviscr alike of gardetis and DUFRESNY 

 comedies ; the soi-disant rival of Lendtre ; laid oict the Gardens of Mignaux, near (^°4 -1724)- 

 Poissy, and of the Abbe Pajot, near Vincennes ; was valet de Chambre to Lonis 

 XIV. ; a ''man of ideas'' one of which Montesquieu adopted in his '■'Letters 

 Persanes"; collaborated with Regnard, and had so??iethingin him ofMarivaux— 

 (Brunetiere). 



The first indications by the Jesuits of Chinese gardens (1690) had struck his 

 ardent and paradoxical hnagination. He loved to work upon an unequal and 



