Ill THE FORMAL GARDEN 69 



Mr. Parkinson by the way, he was a thorough- 

 going adherent of the old school of design. 

 He speaks with some contempt of " gardens of 

 the new model " laid out with good walks and 

 grass plots, and fountains, grottoes, statues, etc., 

 but destitute of flowers, probably referring to 

 some bad applications of French ideas. Rea 

 did Le Notre injustice in implying that his 

 method made no use of flowers ; Madame de 

 Sevigne, writing to her daughter in 1678, about 

 Le Notre's work at Clagny, says, " Vous 

 connaissez la maniere de Le Nostre . . . ce 

 sont des allees ou Ton est a Tombre, et pour 

 cacher les caisses " (for the orange-trees) " il y a, 

 de deux cotes, des palissades, a hauteur d'appui, 

 toutes fleuries de tuberoses, de roses, de jasmins, 

 d'oeillets ; c'est assurement, la plus belle, la plus 

 surprenante et la plus enchantee nouveaute qui 

 se puisse imaginer." The garden which Rea 

 contemplated was, of course, walled in. He 

 talks of 40 yards square as the proper size 

 for a private gentleman's fruit garden, and half 

 this size for his flower garden. The flower 

 gardens were to be laid out in simple geometrical 

 patterns, for which he gives sixteen excellent 

 designs which show no trace at all of French 

 influence. In 1670 appeared The English 

 Gardener^ by Leonard Meager, the third part of 

 which deals with '' the ordering of the garden 

 of pleasure, with variety of knots and wilder- 

 ness work after the best fashion." He gives a 



