B 2^otes and Reflections during a Tow : — 



since it is no longer used as a residence, might be occupied, 

 at moderate rents, by the widows and orphans of pubUc ser- 

 vants. 



Some attention is still paid to the repairs of these gardens ; 

 but we observed, in several instances, hedges and trees clipped 

 in a manner never intended by their original designer. For 

 instance, the cones of yew on the slope to the west of the south 

 front are made to rise from the ground at once, without the 

 intervention of a plinth having the upper surface horizontal. 

 The latter would be in proper architectural order ( flg. 2. a); 

 the former {b) is the reverse. This defect may not strike 



those who have not 

 an architectural eye; 

 but as the principles 

 of architectural de- 

 sign pervade the 

 whole of this style 

 of gardening, and, 

 in fact, constitute its 

 leading principle, 

 '^*'-"" o "'"'"" any obvious neglect 



or defiance of these principles is a deformity. Every thing 

 ought to be what it pretends. 



It is curious to observe, that the want of a roof parapet to 

 the palace had begun to be felt in the time of Louis XVI. : a 

 small part had the addition made during that king's reign ; a 

 part also during the reign of Napoleon ; and a part in Louis 

 XVIII.'s time. Charles X. also had commenced it. 



The kitchen-garden helonging to the palace contains in the 

 borders a number of tall pear trees, trained like pyramids, 

 which M. Lempriere, the head kitchen-gardener, told us 

 produced abundance of young wood, but very little fruit ; a 

 circumstance easily accounted for by the perpetual use of the 

 knife. Repose is essential to fructification in all organised 

 beings. The pear trees against the wall are trained in the fan 

 manner ; which M. Lempriere agreed with us in considering 

 the only method of training worthy of being generally adopted 

 by a rational gardener. M. Lempriere and two of his men 

 were pruning these trees with a large hooked knife, and tving 

 them to nails driven into the wall with Avillow twigs. They 

 wore sabots, or wooden shoes, with straw buskins reaching to 

 their knees, the ground being covered with snow; and re- 

 minded us of the figures of gardeners given in the engravings 

 of the days of La Quintinie, and London and Wise. They 

 were in high spirits ; asked if we were " nn ctdtivateur" and, 

 on being told that we were only " un auteur" their distrust 



