XIV 



the convent of Port Royal, (that divine solitude, 

 where the whole country for a league round breathed 

 the air of virtue and holiness, to quote Mad. de Se- 

 vigne's words), and who sent each year to the queen 

 some of that choice fruit which he there with such 

 zeal cultivated, and which Mazarin " appelloit en riant 

 des fruits benis." This good man died at the age of 

 eighty-six, and the letter of Mad. de Sevigne, of the 

 date of Sept. 23, 1671, will alone consign him to the 

 respect of future ages ;* Jean Paul de Ardenne, supe- 

 rior of the congregation of the oratory of Marseilles, 

 one of the most famous florists of the period in which 

 he lived, and who devoted great part of his time in 

 deeds of charity; Francis Bertrand, who, in 1757, 

 published Ruris delicae, being poems from Tibullus, 

 Claudian, Horace, and from many French writers, on 

 the pleasures of the country ; Mons. de Chabanon ; 

 Morel, who assisted in laying out Ermenonville, and 

 who wrote, among other works, Theorie des Jardins, 

 ou 1'art des Jardins de la Nature ; the animated Pre- 

 vost; Gouges de Cessieres, who wrote Les Jardins 

 d'Ornament, ou les Georgiques Francoises; he, too, 

 whom the Prince de Ligne calls 



enchanteur De Lille ! 



Virgile moderne ! 



and whose generous invocation to the memory of 



* La Comtesse de la Riviere, thus alludes to this convent : "Ma- 

 dame de Sevigne a pour ce monastere une vnration qui est au- 

 dela de toute expression ; elle assure qu'on n'approche pas de ce 

 lieu sans sentir au dedans de soi une onction divine." 



