264 ENGLISH PLEASURE GARDENS 



and other such plants and vegetables as grow or flourish 

 in cold weather: and to give variety and gaiety to these 

 gloomy productions, they plant amongst them in regu- 

 lar forms, divided by walks, all the rare shrubs, flowers, 

 and trees of the torrid zone, which they cover during 

 the winter with frames of glass disposed in the form of 

 temples or other elegant buildings. These they call 

 conservatories: they are warmed by subterraneous fires 

 and afford a comfortable and agreeable retreat when 

 the weather is too cold to walk in the open air. All 

 sorts of melodious birds are let loose within, and they 

 keep there in large porcelain cisterns placed on rocks 

 gold and silver fishes with various kinds of water lilies, 

 they also raise in them a variety of fruit." Other build- 

 ings which could be used in winter were menageries, 

 aviaries, decorated dairies and buildings for various 

 games, besides large enclosures in the woods provided 

 for military sports, riding, and archery. 



For summer there were all sorts of pavilions provided, 

 some of them built in the trees, others in the form of 

 Persian tents or in various fantastic shapes. On the 

 grounds of one of the imperial palaces there were four 

 hundred pavilions each in a different style. One cost 

 two hundred thousand pounds and consisted of a hundred 

 rooms. Perhaps Marie Antoinette got the idea of her 

 miniature village at the Petit Trianon from this same 

 garden, where there was a fortified town with everything 



