XI 



interesting works the Biographic Universelle (in 52 

 tomes) gives a long list, and mentions the great sale 

 which his Jardinier fleuriste once had; Morin, the 

 florist, mentioned by Evelyn, and whose garden con- 

 tained ten thousand tulips ; the justly celebrated Jean 

 de la Quintinye, whose precepts, says Voltaire, have 

 been followed by all Europe, and his abilities magni- 

 ficently rewarded by Louis ; Le Notre, the most cele- 

 brated gardener (to use Mr. Loudon's words) that 



the Bishop of Evreaux : " A man for whom eloquence and great 

 sentiments had powerful charms." 



I had designed some few years ago, to have published a Review 

 of some of the superb Gardens in France, during the reign of 

 Henry IV. and during the succeeding reigns, till the demise of 

 Louis XV., embellished with plates of some of the costly and mag- 

 nificent decorations of those times ; with extracts from such of 

 their eminent writers whose letters or works may have occasionally 

 dwelt on gardens. My motto, for want of a better, might have 

 been these two lines from Rapin, 



France, in all her rural pomp appears 



With numerous gardens stored. 



Perhaps I might have been so greedy and insolent, as to have pre- 

 sumed to have monopolized our Shakspeare's line, " I love France 

 so well, that I will not part with a village of it ; I will have it all 

 mine." 



Isaac Walton gives the following lines from a translation of a 

 German poet, which makes one equally fond of England : 



We saw so many woods, and princely bowers, 

 Sweet fields, brave palaces, and stately towers, 

 So many gardens dress 'd with curious care, 

 That Thames with royal Tiber may compare. 



