THE STYLE OF LOUIS XVI. 



427 



also carried out works in her apartments at Versailles at the same time, 

 and later on extensive alterations to the chateau of St Cloud, which 

 she purchased from the Duke of Orleans in 1785. 



PETIT TRIANON GARDENS. With the assistance of the landscape 

 painter, Hubert Robert, Mique laid waste Le Notre's gardens at Trianon, 

 dug a picturesque lake, dotted trees singly and in clumps over undulating 

 meadows, and laid out meandering paths and rivulets. In such a 

 garden no style of architecture came amiss. All countries from China 

 to Peru, all ages from the Pyramids downwards might be represented 

 with equal propriety. If the visitor, pursuing his sinuous course, is dis- 

 appointed in not meeting the ruins of Baalbek, or of a Gothic abbey, he 

 must not lay the blame on Mique, but on the embarrassed state of the royal 

 finances, and console himself with a Roman temple in excellent repair. A 

 little further he comes upon a fantastic look-out tower, " Tour de Marl 

 borough," and a 

 rustic hamlet with 

 manor-house, par- 

 sonage, mill and cot- 

 tages complete, like 

 nothing else on earth, 

 but accepted at the 

 time as a facsimile 

 of an old-fashioned 

 French village. Here 

 were the farm and 

 dairy where the 

 Queen spent months 

 at a time with her 

 children and friends, 

 playing at the simple 

 life, and helping to 

 destroy the prestige 

 of royalty by neglect- 

 ing etiquette and 

 the public duties of 

 her position. 



The gardens 

 would have been 

 incomplete without 

 Oriental importa- 

 tions, but it is no 

 longer possible to 

 feast one's eyes on 

 the painted stone 

 29 



0123*5 



406. 



PARIS : CHANCELLERIE D'ORLEANS. ELEVATION. 

 NEW FRONT BY C. DE WAILLY. 



Measured and Drawn by L. M. Gotch. 



