HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE. 51 



will now take the pains to climb its steep paths, will 

 find the same charm in the aged cypresses, the 

 oddly clipped ilexes and boxes, the stiff terraces 

 and narrow, and now overgrown, beds."* 



In France, where estates are larger, and the sur- 

 face of the country more even and regular, the orna- 

 mental grounds, while following the Italian in cer- 

 tain particulars, are of wider range on the flat, and 

 they attain picturesqueness upon lines of their own. 

 The taste of the people, conveniently answering 

 to the conditions of the country, runs upon long 

 avenues and spacious grounds, divided by massive 

 trellises into a series of ornamental sections 

 Bocages, Cabinets de Verdure, &c., which by their 

 form and name, flatter the Arcadian sentiment of a 

 race much given to idealisation. " I am making 

 winding alleys all round my park, which will be of 

 great beauty." writes Madame de Sevigne, in 1671. 

 " As to my labyrinth, it is neat, it has green plots, and 

 the palisades are breast-high ; it is a lovable spot." 



The French have parks, says the travelled Heutz- 

 ner, but nothing is more different, both in compass 

 and direction, than those common to England. In 

 France they invented the parks as fit surroundings 

 to the fine palaces built by Mansard and Le Notre, 

 and the owners of these stately chateaux gratified 

 their taste for Nature in an afternoon promenade on a 

 broad stone terrace, gazing over a carved balustrade 

 at a world made truly artificial to suit the period. 

 The style of Le Notre is, in fact, based upon the 



* ' The Garden." WALTER HOWE. 



D 2 



