European and Japanese Gardens 



RUINS OF THE PALACE 



imagine the charm of ingenuousness with which such antics 

 must have been accompanied for them to have been received 

 as they were. When word of this e\ent reached the court at 

 Versailles, high wagers were laid that the tale was untrue be- 

 cause incredible. But Louis XIV, when he heard the account, 

 burst into laughter, asserting he knew it was true, " Because " 

 said he, " he kisses even me, when he has been long without 

 seeing me ! " 



M. Andre maintains that the great Frenchman found 

 nothing in Italy worthy of his attention, and returned without 

 having learned anything, — a claim which we need not take too 

 seriously. He busied himself, while there, by creating two of 

 the finest gardens in the vicinity of Rome, those of the Villa 

 Pamfili and the Villa Ludovisi. He was ennobled in 1665, and 

 died in 1 700. Coysevox, the sculptor of many of the exquisite 

 details of the great gardener's work, executed his bust, which 

 is now in the Louvre. 



A list of Le Notre's works would be too long for me to give 

 here ; but I must mention, in addition to his masterpiece at 

 Versailles, his gardens at Marly, now nearly obliterated, but 

 which must have been only less fine than Versailles, though in 



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