SEVENTEENTH CENTURY i8i 



in the reign, as the work there was begun in 1660. Pepys, in 

 his Diary, makes mention of several visits to see how the " brave 

 alterations " progressed, and in October, 1660, he went for a 

 " walk in St. James's Park, where we observed several engines 

 at work to draw up water, with which sight I was very much 

 pleased." The warrant in which the reference to the French 

 gardeners occurs, which many writers have concluded to mean 

 Le Notre, runs as follows. It is dated December 10, 166 1, 

 and is a warrant creating a certain Adrian May " to be super- 

 visor of the French gardeners employed at Whitehall, 

 St. James's, and Hampton Court, to examine their bills, 

 accounts, and see that they have due satisfaction, with a 

 salary of ;^200 a year therefore."^ Le Notre was a man of very 

 different standing, and had been ennobled by Louis XIV., 

 and would have been entertained and received at Court, and 

 not treated like an ordinary gardener. Furthermore, the names 

 of some of the French gardeners appear from other warrants, 

 dated June and September, 1661. The first is " to pay 

 Andrew and Gabriel Mollett £240 yearly for wages as the 

 King's gardeners, and for them to have lodgings in St. James's 

 Park belonging to the gardeners. "^ The same year " Gabriel 

 Mollett " had been buying flowers in Paris for the garden 

 at St. James's, for which he sent in a bilP for 1,487 French 

 livres, or 115 pounds sterhng. It appears that he did not 

 long enjoy his position as gardener with " Andrew," for there 

 is a petition dated at Whitehall, February 27th, 1662-1663, 

 of " Charles Mollett to the King for payment of £115 due 

 for flowers brought from France by his late brother Gabriel, 

 and planted in the Royal Gardens, St. James's Park, with 

 a reference thereon to Adrian May, surveyor of the King's 

 gardens, and his report that the flowers, being Anemones and 

 Ranunculus, were planted without his knowledge, and are only 

 worth ;^i4 to ;^i8."^ Mollett had certainly not been paid, as 



^ Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, Charles II., 1 661 -1662. 



^ Ibid., Domestic, 1661-1662 ; also September 27th, 1661. " Warrent 

 to pay Andrew and Gabriel Mollett the yearly sum of ;^240 for wages 

 for the Royal Garden, St. James's Park, planting fruit-trees and 

 flowers " (vol. xlii., No. 41). 



^ Ibid., 1661-1662, vol. xlvii., No. 77. 



* Ibid., 1663-1664, vol. Ixviii., No. 115. 



