FRENCH GARDENS: i6th AND EARLY 17TH CENTURIES -j^ 



and an inscription in the other, so placed that when any one steps forward 

 to examine the inscription he may have the vase of water emptied on his head. 

 The surprise fountain illustrated on p. ']6 consisted of a revolving dragon 

 emitting a jet of water that could be made to play in any direction by a 

 concealed operator. In describing the arrangement of the trees to form the 

 cabinets de verdure or natural summer houses, he says that young elms should 

 be planted at even distances, trained upward, and lopped until their trunks 

 are grown to a sufficient height to form the columns of a little temple ; they are 

 then to receive, above and below, circular wounds which will cause a deposit of 

 fresh wood, and natural protuberances corresponding to the bases and capitals 

 of ordinary columns. The branches which shoot from the capitals of these 

 living pillars are to be trained in the first instance, and elaborately worked 

 into the pattern of an architectural frieze. Evidently fearing the ridicule 

 with which these ideas might be met, Palissy goes on to say that whereas in 

 these days men admired gardens abounding in dragons, cocks, and other 

 absurdities, even soldiers on horseback, cut out of rosemary and other 

 plants, how much more should they admire his living house, which when 

 established would not need attention more than about twice a year. 



Olivier de Serres (1539-1619) was another great gardener of the period, 

 though he is famous more as a practical horticulturist than as a designer. 

 He published in 1599 ^^^ Treatise on the Silkworm and in 1600 the Theatre 

 d"* Agriculture. 



The Mollets may be said to have formed a dynasty in their art. 

 The first was the chief gardener at the Chateau d'Anet, where he laid out 

 the famous gardens that we have already described and formed a collection 

 of rare flowers and herbs for the Due d'Aumale. His son, Claude MoUet, 

 was born in 1563 and succeeded his father as the designer of the Royal 

 gardens of Henri IV and Louis XIII. He is said to have been the first in 

 France to create the parterres a compartiments de broderie (v. p. 125). In 

 1595 we find him employed at Saint Germain-en-Laye and a few years later 

 at Monceaux, Fontainebleau and also at the Tuileries. He left two sons, 

 Claude and Andre, both of whom were famous gardeners, the latter being 

 appointed head gardener to James I. In 1651 Andre Mollet published his 

 great work, Le Jardin de Plaisir. He was the first author to recom- 

 mend the extensive planting of avenues, a fashion destined to effect great 

 changes in the garden craft of both France and England. He insists that 



