from June 28. to August 16. 1840. 385 



there should seldom be any other walk seen by the spectator 

 than that on which he is walking. This may always be con- 

 trived by slight elevations of surface near the walks, or by the 

 judicious inteiposition of evergreen shrubs, as we have hinted at 

 in the description of Garden Cottage, Cheshunt, in our preced- 

 ing volume. We do not say that there are not many cases in 

 which the glimpse of a walk in an inviting situation at a distance 

 may not be desirable to invite the spectator onward ; on the con- 

 trary, we hold it as a principle that glimpses of walks, of seats, tem- 

 joles, ruins, remarkable trees, mounts, or pieces of water, should 

 frequently be obtained from the walks of extensive grounds, as 

 helps to the imagination. Every straight walk in the geometric 

 st^'le leads to a terminating object distinctly seen; and every 

 winding walk in the natural style exhibits nothino; that cives the 

 idea of termination : it " still begins, but never ends." 



It is remarkable that the name of the Englishman who laid 

 out the gardens of the Petit Trianon, in the time of Louis XVI., 

 is unknown. The queen, Marie Antoinette, is said to have 

 dressed herself like a peasant, and spent whole days in that 

 character in these grounds, occupied with her dairy and with 

 poultry ; partly a proof of her unfitness for her situation, and 

 partly of the unfitness of the royal office, as it then existed, for 

 the condition of humanity. (See Miss Martineau's admirable 

 little work, The Peasant and the Prince.) 



In the collection of trees and shrubs we found a few interest- 

 ing plants ; but, on the whole, it was less complete than we 

 expected. Two or three of the trees which formed part of the 

 E'cole of Jussieu still exist, particularly two fine specimens of 

 Quercus Pseiido-Siiber. A cedar of Lebanon, 50 years planted, 

 is 65 ft. high; ^'phedra monostachya, 5ft. high. (M. Masse 

 informs us that there is one at Toulon 20 ft. high, where it is 

 called Barbe de Jupiter.) Populus heterophylla grafted on P. 

 fastigiata, it is said, forms a more durable little tree than when 

 on its own roots : the stock increases much faster than the 

 scion. A hybrid has been raised here between i/uglans regia 

 and J. nigra, which is very distinct, both in the fruit, leaves, and 

 smell : it nevertheless matures fruit, from which young plants 

 have been raised ; a fact which, with others we met with in the 

 Bois de Boulogne, induces us to think that several of the 

 American species of Carya are hybrids produced by accidental 

 crosses. Many young plants have been raised of ^'Inus cordata, 

 which vary so much in their leaves that several distinct varieties 

 might be selected : one resembles the A. subcordata of Meyer, 

 another the A'luns communis. There is a curious variety of 

 ^^bies communis, about the size of the Araucaria imbricata at 

 Kew; and with the branches not frondose, but having branchlets 

 depending in curves like those of the plant referred to ; and with 



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