SECRETARY'S REPORT. 241 



gardens which he visited, and some of Avhich indeed he himself devised. 

 His remarks convey an idea of the state of gardening during the reign of 

 the merry monarch. ' Hampton Park, Middlesex,' he says, ' was formerly 

 a flat, naked piece of ground, now planted with sweet rows of lime trees, 

 and the canal for water now near perfected ; also the hare park. In the 

 garden is a rich and noble fountain, with syrens, statues,- «fec., cast in cop- 

 per by Fanelli, but no {)lenty of water. There is a parterre which they 

 call Paradise, in which is a pretty banqueting-liouse set over a cave or 

 cellar.' It was under Charles, too, that St. James's Park was formed, a 

 labor upon which the king employed Le ISotre, the celebrated gardener 

 of Versailles, — an artist of singular good taste, and with an admirable 

 eye for the picturesque. 



" During the reign of "William and Mary, Hampton Court was consid- 

 erably improved. Some Dutch features were introduced into gardening, 

 and vegetable sculpture and parterres in lace came into vogue. 



" To the Dutch must be conceded the earliest manifestation of a love 

 for gardening in Northern Europe — a feeling possessed by them even 

 before the thirteenth century. The taste owed its origin, no doubt, partly 

 to the general monotony of their country, partly to the wealth of their 

 merchants, and partly to an extended commerce, which enabled the 

 Dutch to import from the East those bulbous roots which have long been 

 cultivated in Holland, and were once valued at fabulous prices. Dutch 

 gardening soon acquired a peculiar character of its own. The gardens 

 of Loo, laid out in tlie time of William III., were excellent examples of 

 the symmetrical Dutch style; a canal dividt-d the upper from the lower 

 garden ; the beds were cut in squares, and filled at various seasons of 

 the year with tulips, hyacinths, poppies, sun-flowers, «fec. ; straight walks 

 intersected the grounds, which were adorned with numerous statues, 

 grotto-work, and fountains, some exceedingly whimsical and curious ; the 

 trees and shrubs were cut into devices, print-ipaliy in pyramidal forms, 

 whilst hedges separated the different parts of the garden, and were not 

 allowed to grow above a certain height. Straight rows and double rows 

 of trees constitute another characteristic of the Dutch style, and elaborate 

 lace-like patterns for parterres were much in vogue during the latter part 

 of the seventeenth century. The influence of this style upon English 

 gardens may still be perceived in the clipped hedgerows and trees, green 

 terraces, and now only prim, now magnificent avenues, so frequent in our 

 country. 



" It would appear that from William down to George II., gardening in 

 England suffered sad deterioration as an art. Formality prevailed to the 

 most deadening and oppressive extent. The shapes of men and animals 

 were cut in trees, and the land was threatened with a vast and hideous 

 collection of verdant sculpture. Pope and Addison came to the rescue 

 31 



