388 Gardening Visit to Pay-is, 



sailles. We take this opportunity of returning our best thanks 

 to M. Masse, and to his foreman in the forcing-ground, who 

 furnished us with a plan of a boiler of his invention, well 

 adapted for heating where the fuel is of wood. To the 

 foreman at the nursery at the Trianon we are also equally 

 obliged. 



Close to the kitchen-garden at Versailles are the grounds of a 

 villa, which had been laid out and built by Louis XVIII. when 

 dauphin, for one of his mistresses. There is an immense cave, 

 or grotto, formed of stones brought from the Forest of Fontaine- 

 bleau ; and in front of it a lake, of nearly an acre, surrounded 

 by glades of lawn and wood ; the whole in a state of utter 

 neglect. We did not go into the kitchen-garden or the house. 

 This property, we were informed, was sold during the first 

 revolution for a smaller sum than would now be procured for 

 the lead pipes which convey the water to the grotto, if they 

 could be dug up. We enquired if Louis XVIIL had ever 

 come to visit this villa after the restoration, and were answered 

 in the negative. This place, when we saw it, was on sale; and 

 by an Englishman of taste, and a little property, it might be 

 made a terrestrial paradise. 



Neuilli/, the private property of the king, is an extensive 

 place, with a flat surface ; and, as it appeared to us, rather 

 too much cut up with walks, roads, and trees. There is no 

 breadth of effect any where. There are one or two good points 

 about Neuilly, however, which it may be worth while to mention. 

 The unity of a willow scene, as seen from a wooden bridge, 

 and the greenness of the lawn near the house, are both worthy 

 of notice. The house itself has neither dignity nor elegance, 

 nor can we say that there is any display of good taste within the 

 domain. Nevertheless, we love the place on account of the 

 esteem and respect which we have for the owner and his family. 

 The house is approached by carriages on both fronts, a practice 

 general on the Continent, but happily rare in England ; because 

 it strikes at the root of all privacy and seclusion. In every 

 country house in England, from the smallest cottage to the most 

 magnificent palace, there is always a public and private front: 

 the former, or entrance front, exhibiting a porch or portico, at 

 the door of which the stranger knocks, and to which carriages 

 drive up ; and the garden, or lawn, front, commonly on the op- 

 posite, but at all events on a different, side of the dwelling, to 

 which no carriages or horsemen, nor no stranger on foot, can 

 approach without the knowledge of some part of the family. 

 Hence, on this lawn or garden front, ladies and children may 

 walk out at all hours of the day, unseen and undisturbed by 

 visitors who may call at the entrance-front. In our opinion, 

 there can be no true enjoyment in a country house that has not 



