21 8 GARDEN CRAFT IN EUROPE 



tion. He considered it " The perfectest Figure of a garden " he ever saw, 

 either at home or abroad. 



Charles II, during his sojourn abroad, acquired much of the taste for 

 stately gardens with which Le Notre and his followers were imbuing 

 the whole of France and Holland^. He remarks on "Ye improvement of 

 gardens and buildings now yeiy rare in England comparatively to other 

 countries," and one of his first cares after his accession was the improvement 

 and renovation of his gardens at Hampton Court, for which purpose he 

 sent to Versailles for gardeners. Of the alterations made by Charles II 

 the most important was the laying out of the Home Park in its present form, 

 the planting of the great avenues of limes with the semi-circular avenue 

 enclosing the great parterre of nine and a half acres, and the digging of the 

 great canal, three-quarters of a mile in length. These radiating avenues 

 are probably the earliest instances of the introduction of that French taste 

 which was afterwards copied all over the country, for though the planting 

 of single avenues of approach was customary as early as the reign of Queen 

 Elizabeth, nothing had been attempted in planting avenues as part of the 

 garden scheme. 



When William and Mary made the alterations to the palace from Sir 

 Christopher Wren's design they carried to completion the works begun by 

 Charles II. They appointed George London to the post of Royal Gardener, 

 who, acting in conjunction with his partner, laid out the gardens as we 

 see it in the engraving of Kip. There can be no doubt that much of 

 the actual design for the gardens emanated from the master mind of Sir 

 Christopher Wren, and there is a plan by him which shows the Privy Gar- 

 den exactly as in Kip's view (illus.,p. 219). Under William III the avenues 

 surrounding the great parterre were set back, and many changes made in 

 the design of the parterre itself. When Queen Anne came into possession 

 of the palace the gardens were again remodelled, alterations were made 

 to the fountain garden and all the box scrollwork of William and Mary 

 was rooted up, plain lawns being substituted. The gardens were again 

 altered under William Kent about 1736, in the early days of the landscape 

 garden movement. 



With the accession of William and Mary came further changes in the 

 fashion of gardens, and the Dutch manner as practised in the great gardens 

 at Honslaerdyk, the Hague, and the Loo was mingled with the more stately 

 principles of Le Notre's school. The old Dutch garden at Levens Hall 



