PREFACE 



THE love of gardens is an old characteristic of our race. " The English- 

 man has ever felt the lure of green things growing," wrote the author of 

 Piers Plowman more than six centuries ago, and though fashions have come 

 and gone in gardens as in everything else, this interest, far from having died 

 out, is nowadays stronger than ever. 



Since Mr. J. D. Sedding wrote his poetic essay on Garden Craft, and for 

 the first time treated the subject from the standpoint of the best architectural 

 taste, there has been an extraordinary revival in garden craft (or as the French 

 express it, jardinage, that is, the art of designing gardens as distinct from 

 horticulture) and the old nineteenth century naturalistic ideas of garden 

 design are fast losing their hold upon the public. 



When my work on Formal Gardens in England and Scotland appeared 

 ten years ago, it met with so gratifying a reception that I felt induced to 

 extend my studies to the Continent, and especially to Italy. Many oppor- 

 tunities of travel in France, Germany, Holland and Spain have since enabled 

 me to collect the material for the present work. In all these countries examples 

 of old garden craft are but rarely to be met with, and considering the changes 

 wrought by succeeding fashions, this is hardly to be wondered at. Few people 

 realize how fragmentary are the remains that exist, and it is difficult to grasp 

 the original lay-out and the various changes that have taken place on 

 a visit even to such gardens as Versailles and Fontainebleau. I have 

 preferred, therefore, to take my illustrations as. far as possible from contem- 

 porary engravings, in the collection of which I have been assisted by the 

 Librarians of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, by M. de Nolhac, the curator 

 of Versailles, by Mr. Leonard Springer, of Haarlem, and by my publisher, 

 who has in his possession numerous rare books on the subject. To aU of these 



