FRENCH FURNISHINGS FOR FORMAL GARDENS 



the accessories, of sundials, fountain figures, and 

 huge shells forming basins to hold the soil for grow- 

 ing water plants, are appropriately blended after 

 the type of early French gardening. 



A visitor to these quaint gardens, if he has had 

 the pleasure of visiting similar types in France, is 

 reminded of what were once known as the " Palis sy 

 gardens. " Although the earliest examples of this 

 form were carried to extremes, the present-day types 

 display much to be commended. It was the same 

 Bernard Palissy who was afterwards famous for his 

 work in porcelain, who first advanced quaint forms 

 of adornments for water gardens. It is true that he 

 was justly condemned and widely criticised for over- 

 doing the matter when he allowed his unbridled imag- 

 ination to carry him to absurd extremes; as when 

 he built the famous gardens and pleasure grounds 

 for Catherine de Medici at Chenonceaux. In this 

 work he not only completely abandoned himself to 

 his fancy for rockeries, basins and shell work, and 

 similar appropriate adornments for water gardens, 

 but he added to the list of concrete adornments, frogs, 

 turtles, snakes, etc., in such variety that the beauty of 

 his work was lost in the study of its absurdity. 



Much that was really good in Palissy 's conception 

 is now carried out in the French treatment of water 

 gardens, while his extremes and absurdities are 



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