FRENCH GARDENS: LATER i/th AND i8th CENTURIES 155 



where an existing country house was adapted ; the chateau was completed 

 under Louis XVI, when the gardens were laid out. 



At Luneville, the Duke of Lorraine laid out immense garden schemes, 

 which involved the destruction of whole villages and the removal of a 

 monastery. Between the years 171 1 and 171 8 the colossal work was 

 directed by Yves des Hours, who aspired to rival Le Notre, and in 1724 



THE GROTTO AT LUNEVILLE. 



the gardens were placed under the control of Louis Gervais, the future 

 designer of Schonbrunn, then a youth fresh from studying at Meudon and 

 Vienna. Voltaire wrote in 1738 : "One can hardly think one has changed 

 places when one comes from Versailles to Luneville." A theatre de verdure 

 with grass seats, perfumed by numbers of orange trees and surrounded by 

 varieties of water jets, was the scene of a famous hal rustique in 1739 upon 

 the occasion of the marriage of Madame Louise Elizabeth with the Infante 

 Don Philip. But the most wonderful feature of the garden was the Rocher 



