330 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



is only in the hands of his imitators that a flaw in 

 his style can be detected. 



Versailles was his masterpiece ; a very different 

 Versailles from that of to-day. Only to look at a 

 picture of its marvels, as it was in the time of 

 Louis XIV., is to be bewildered by the vastness 

 of its size, the perfection of its design, and the 

 elaborateness of its details. 



This wonderful man, Le Notre, appears to have 

 planned his designs to suit the taste of the 

 Court who loved to masquerade as shepherds 

 and shepherdesses the originals of Watteau and 

 Lancret's exquisite pictures. Desiring " their 

 houses to extend into their Gardens," Le Notre 

 made them architectural and formal, a proper back- 

 ground for his fascinating artificial patrons. 



As yet Rousseau's blast in the cause of Nature 

 had not swept across France, influencing indirectly 

 the whole of Europe. 



Charles II. invited both Le Notre and Perrault 

 to England. The latter declined the invitation, and 

 it is still uncertain whether Le Notre came or not, 

 but that he designed Gardens in England there is 

 no doubt, especially Melbourne and Wrest, and 

 that his influence was greatly felt in this country. 

 Among the many delightful features of the older 

 Garden is a Berceau (or Pleached alley), the 

 twisted boughs of the Lime trees making a regular 

 leafy canopy overhead. The Berceau is called 



