FRENCH GARDENS: LATER 17TH AND i8th CENTURIES 139 



superb " Hermitage " that De Brosses thought finer than any of the villas 

 in Rome. Saint Simon says the site was a narrow deep valley, without 

 any view, solely chosen in order to spend money, such was the King's " superb 

 pleasure in forc- 

 ing nature." The 

 " Hermitage " was 

 rarely used and 

 never for more than 

 a few nights at a 

 time, but in spite 

 of this it was con- 

 tinually being en- 

 larged ; the hills 

 were cut away to 

 make space for 

 building, and those 

 which stood in the 

 way of the view 

 were bodily re- 

 moved. Marly was 

 in one respect pre- 

 ferable to Versailles 

 — there was much 

 more shade. The 

 central pavilion was 

 shaded on the south 

 by dense bosquets 

 ascending the hill- 

 side. The great 

 cascade or Riviere 

 (Teau (illus,, p. 137) 

 was planned on the 

 central axial line of the garden. It was an entirely new and ingenious idea 

 composed of sixty-three steps so evenly adjusted that the water flowing from 

 one to the other gave the impression of a single sheet of water when viewed 

 from below. The pool into which the water fell was decorated by magnifi- 



IN THE MARLY GARDENS, AFTER 



MOREAU LE JEUNE (1773). 



