36 



GARDEN CRAFT IN EUROPE 



the tubs, which hold oranges in such a way as to make it appear that the 

 orange trees are planted in the palisades." " We were at Clagny," wrote 

 Madame de Sevigne in 1675. " How can I describe it ? It is a veritable 

 palace of Armida ; the building is growing visibly ; the gardens are made. 

 You know the manner of Le Notre ; he has left a little dark wood which does 

 very well. There is a grove of orange trees in great tubs ; you walk there ; 

 and they form alleys in the shade ; and to hide the tubs there are rows of 

 pallisades high enough to lean on, all aflower with tuberoses, roses, jasmines^ 



t (^c7M-i/i acta q one oati dcf COojqucU Ac nieudari 



FOUNTAINS IN A BOSQUET AT MEUDON. 



and carnations ; it is surely the most beautiful, the most surprising, and the 

 most enchanted novelty imaginable." According to a writer in the Mercure 

 Galant the garden was celebrated for its bosquets of forest trees, parterres 

 and grass walks, horn-beam bosquets and its treillage. 



The cost of Clagny was a mere bagatelle to that of Marly, where between 

 1677 and 1684 Mansart and Duruse spent immense sums^ in creating the 



1 Between 1679 and 1715 the money spent on Marly in pavilions and gardens amounted 

 to 11,686,979 ^^'^'•' °^ nearly 50 million francs in modern money. CY\tovi,Histoire de MarLy. 



