38 GARDEN DESIGN 



den" is equally applied to one of the Elizabethan 

 period, or to one modelled from the Dutch. Le 

 Jar din Anglais as known on the Continent is not 

 a style that one would care to have received as 

 representative of the national taste. It was 

 certainly evolved in England and practised by 

 Kent and Brown, but of all styles seen in England 

 surely this is the least artistic and most easily 

 abused. 



2. FRANCE 



THE French have borrowed so much from other 

 countries, and been so often affected by fashion 

 that they can hardly be said to have a national 

 style in garden design, unless the period of Louis 

 XIV may be held to be more characteristic than 

 any other. Le Notre was the giant of the seven- 

 teenth century, and his grand achievement, the 

 garden of Versailles, set the fashion, until the 

 English style displaced it, and at the present day 

 the jardin anglais is the chosen type for parks and 

 villas. Curved paths in circles and egg shapes are 

 interlaced through shrubberies and lawns. This 

 was a natural reaction from the absurd extrava- 

 gances that Le Notre's followers introduced. He 

 had used the geometrical style for miles around 

 the house, and worked up each section with every 

 device of his ingenuity. His followers planted 

 miles of avenues travelling up hill and down dale, 



