108 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



"Chinese fireworks detained a splendid twilight in the firmament^ 

 while the atmosphere was odoriferous with the perpetual splash of 

 scented fountains. Masks and dances alternately ministered to- 

 the amusement of the court, among whom the sovereign himself 

 was conspicuous by his silver armor, studded with a profusion of 

 diamonds, and the fire-colored plumes that nodded in his helmet." 



It is certainly a great relief to mind and eye to go from these 

 gardens to that of the Petit Trianon, the favorite place of Marie 

 Antoinette, to which she and her chosen friends used to fly from 

 pomp and formality, to enjoy the peace and repose of green 

 fields, verdant glades, and the delicious coolness of naturally 

 grown shade trees. She built there a picturesque little dairy on 

 the margin of a natural flowing stream. The whole effect is one 

 of perfect peace and quiet, in which the lover of Nature takes 

 such delight. 



The style of Le Notre prevailed throughout England, and he 

 was called upon to make designs for many of the royal gardens 

 of the palaces. As time went on, however, people began to think 

 for themselves, and the influence of fashion to give way to 

 native feeling, and general reasoning. 



Milton is generally considered the prophet of natural gardening. 

 In his Paradise Lost, published in 1667, there is a charming 

 description of a picturesque garden. This led to writings by 

 Addison and Pope, which so stirred the public mind that a revolu- 

 tion in favor of a more natural style of gardening was started. 



William Kent, a young artist of Yorkshire, realizing the 

 beautiful descriptions of the poets, began in 1730 important 

 innovations. The most conspicuous were the destruction of the 

 walls 'as boundaries, and the introduction of sunken walls or 

 ha-has, as they were called. These did much to harmonize the 

 lawn and park. Kent was the gentleman who, as the saying 

 goes, "Peeped over the wall and found all Nature was a garden." 



Brown followed Kent. He acquired a very great reputation, 

 which reached its height when, by constructing a dam at Blenheim, 

 he produced in a week, a grand artificial lake, the largest at that 

 time in the world. Improvement was the fashion of the day, 

 filling Brown's pockets to overflowing. His work, however, was 

 characterless. He treated all places practically the same, what- 

 ever the extent or character of the surface, always surrounding 

 them by a narrow belt of trees, while the intermediate space was 



