1^4 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



accausc que la fleur a Rcsscmblance au Ranonculle et deuient 

 fort large la douzaine Reuicnt a trcntc liures cy . . . . 030/^ 



jtain vnc douzaine de gros ognons dc jacinthe double auecque 

 vne douzaine de jonq'uille jaune le tout Reuient a vingt liures 

 cy . . . . . . . . . . . . 020// 



Somme totalle du prcsant Memoire ce Monte a quatorze 



cent quatre vingts sept liures cy . . . . 1487// 



This present Bill comes to jn english Money one 



hundred and fiftcene pound . . . . . . ii5;£ 



[Endorsed ;] Molct y" Gardin'. 



Although Adrian May rightly drew attention to the exorbi- 

 tant charges in the above account, he does not seem to have 

 always been as particular in settling just claims, for on De- 

 cember 16, 1663, there was a petition from " the labourers who 

 have worked in the Royal Gardens, under Mr. Mollet, to the 

 King for payment of wages. They have worked 31 weeks and 

 received nothing."^ 



Andrew MoUett is the one of the family here referred to, 

 and he was the most important. He is really Andre Mollet, 

 and was the brother of Noel, and son and pupil of Claude 

 Mollet, chief gardener both to Henry IV. and Louis XIII., 

 who had died about 1613. A work by Claude, entitled 

 Theatre des Plans et Jardinagcs, was published by his 

 sons in 1652. The plates in this work are signed by Noel, 

 Jacques, and Andre Mollet.^ Andre himself was the author of 

 a work entitled Le Jardin de Plaisir, published in Stockholm 

 in 1651.^ He gives a portrait of his father on the engraved 

 title, and describes himself as " Maitre des Jardins de la reine 

 de Suede" (the celebrated and eccentric Queen Christina). 

 Later on, after he had been estabhshed in St. James's Park, 

 he published another book with the same title in Enghsh, The 

 Garden of Pleasure,"^ containing designs for gardens, and dedi- 



^ Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1663-1664, p. 357. 



- Brunet, Manuel du Libraire, 1862. There were other editions — 1663 

 and 1678. 



^ There is a copy of this book in the British Museum (said by Brunet 

 to be rare). 



* I only know of one copy of this book, which is at Lyme Park, in 

 the possession of Lord Newton, and from which the extracts quoted 

 here have been made. 



