12 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



the courts of Europe, in the decoration and embellishment of 

 their gardens, gave a new impulse as well as a sublime orran- 

 deur, to the art. The finest example of this style is perhaps 

 that of Versailles, the garden of the extravagant Louis XIV., 

 and the most distinguished artist its designer, Le Notre. Its 

 water works, jets-deau, etc., alone, are stated to have been 

 played off seven or eight times a year at an expense of more 

 than two thousand dollars per hour. Sculpture of every de- 

 scription, mural and verdant, was scattered in profusion 

 through the superb gardens of this period ; statues and busts 

 of celebrated heroes and statesmen, fountains of all descrip- 

 tions, urns and vases almost without number : and the whole, 

 especially on so grand a scale, had a most imposing and 

 magnificent effect. 



Any person who will analyze the kind of beauty aimed at 

 in the ancient style, will we think, at once perceive its cha- 

 racteristics to be uniformity and the display of symmetric art. 

 Almost any one may succeed in laying out and planting a gar- 

 den in right lines, and may give it an air of stateliness and 

 grandeur, by costly decorations ; and even now, there are per- 

 haps thousands who would express greater delight in walking 

 through such a garden, than in surveying one where the 

 finest natural beauties are combined. The reason of this is 

 indeed sufficiently obvious. 



Every one, though possessed of the least possible portion 

 of taste, readily appreciates the cost and labour incurred in 

 the first case, and bestows his admiration accordingly; but we 

 must infer the presence of a cultivated and refined mind, to 

 realize and enjoy the more exquisite beauty of natural forms. 



As however cultivation progressed in Europe, the taste for 

 this style began to be weakened by several causes. In the 

 first place, a large portion of the lands coming under the 



