HISTORICAL NOTICED. 23 



their ornamental grounds. Tiieir beautiful marbles seem 

 to have been supplied by Art in too great profusion to be 

 confined even to the colonnades of their villas, and broad 

 enriched terraces, vases, and statues, everywhere enliven, 

 and contrast with, the verdure of the foliage ; trees and 

 plants being often less abundant than the sculptural orna- 

 ments which they serve to set off to advantage. An island 

 — Isola Bella — in one of their little lakes, has often been 

 quoted as the most highly wrought type of the Italian 

 taste ; " a barren rock," says a spirited writer, " rising in the 

 midst of a lake, and producing but a few poor lichens, which 

 has been converted into a pyramid of terraces supported on 

 arches, and ornamented with bays and orange trees of 

 amazing size and beauty."' The Villa Borghese, at Rome, 

 is one of the most celebrated later examples, with its 

 pleasure grounds three miles in circumference, filled with 

 symmetrical walks, and abounding with an endless pro 

 fusion of sculpture. 



The old French gardens differ little from those of Italy, 

 if we except that, with the same formality, they have more 

 of theatrical display — frequently substituting gilt trellises 

 and wooden statues for the exquisite marble balustrades 

 and sculptured ornaments of the Italians. But we must 

 not forget the crowning glory of the Geometric style, the 

 gardens of Louis XIV. at Versailles. A prince whose grand 

 idea of a royal garden was not compassed under two hun- 

 dred acres devoted to that purpose, and who, when shown 

 the bills of cost in their formation, amounting to two hun- 

 dred millions of francs, quietly threw them into the fire, 

 could scarcely fail, whatever the style of art adopted, in 

 producing a scene of great splendor. He was fortunate, too, 

 in his gardener, Le Notre, whose ideas, scarcely less superb 



