LE NOTRE AND VERSAILLES 87 



course with the great artists of the day who often visited the master's 

 studio. These influences, taken in conjunction with a practical knowledge 

 of gardening, inherited from his father, enabled him to start on his career 

 singularly well equipped for the great task that lay before him. 



After leaving Vouet he worked quietly with his father in the royal 

 gardens for many years, always studying horticulture and the practical 



THE PARTERRE, VAUX-LE-VICOMTE. 



science of gardening, and drawing a small salary as an under gardener, his 

 work being confined to the care of an espalier of Spanish jessamine and 

 white mulberries. 



Le Notre is said to have made some designs for Richelieu's chateau 

 of Rueil and for Gaillon, but the-first work which brought him into promin- 

 ence was the garden at Vaux-le-Vicomte, between Paris and Fontainebleau, 

 where Fouquet raised his superb chateau upon a scale of magnificence that 



