26o ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



^rj over jr urO p e results similar to those produced by 



son between ' 



Chinese and the Chinese were aimed at with more or less success. 



English 



gardening. "The English have not yet brought the art of garden- 

 ing to the same perfection as the Chinese," remarks 

 Oliver Goldsmith, "but have lately begun to imitate 

 them ; nature is now followed with greater assiduity 

 than formerly; the trees are suffered to shoot out into 

 the utmost luxuriance ; the streams, no longer forced 

 from their native beds, are permitted to wind along the 

 valleys ; the spontaneous flowers take the place of the 

 finished parterre and the enamelled meadow of shaven 

 green." 



Theim- One of the earliest descriptions of the Chinese style 



pcrial 



gardens at was a translation of an " Account of the Emperor of 



Felon. 



China's Gardens near Pekin," by the Jesuit father, Pere 

 Attiret, which was widely circulated in England. After 

 describing the pleasure houses, courts open and close, 

 porticoes, hills, valleys, streams, lakes, rivers, and cas- 

 cades, " which, when viewed all together, have an admir- 

 able effect on the eye," he continues : " They go from 

 one valley to another, not by formal straight walks as 

 in England, but by various turnings and windings, 

 adorned on the sides by little pavilions and charming 

 Grottoes; and each of these valleys is diversified from 

 all the rest both by their manner of laying out the 

 Ground, and in the Structure and Disposition of its 

 Buildings. 



