ARTHUR YOUNG 209 



France as in England. The labyrinth is the only complete one 

 I have seen, and I have no inclination to see another : it is in 

 gardening what a rebus is in poetry. In the Sylvae are many 

 very fine and scarce plants. May 25^, 1787. 



As to the garden, it is beneath all contempt, except as an St Martino. 

 object to make a man stare at the efforts to which folly can arrive : 

 in the space of an acre, there are hills of genuine earth, mountains 

 of pasteboard, rocks of canvas : abbes, cows, sheep and shep- 

 herdesses in lead ; monkeys and peasants, asses and altars, in 

 stone. Fine ladies and blacksmiths, parrots and lovers, in wood. 

 Windmills and cottages, shops and villages, nothing excluded 

 except nature. . . . 



Give a man the secure possession of a bleak rock, and he will 

 turn it into a garden ; give him a nine years' lease of a garden, 

 and he will convert it into a desert. 



We passed by Chantilly to Morefountain, the country seat of Morefontaine. 

 Mons. de Morefountain, Prevost des Marchands of Paris ; the 

 place has been mentioned as decorated in the English style. It 

 consists of two scenes ; one a garden of winding walks, and 

 ornamented with a profusion of temples, benches, grottos, columns, 

 ruins, and I know not what : I hope the French who have not 

 been in England do not consider this as the English taste. It is 

 in fact as remote from it as the most regular style of the last age. 

 The water view is fine. There is a gaiety and cheerfulness in it 

 that contrast well with the brown and unpleasing hills that 

 surround it, and which partake of the waste character of the 

 worst part of the surrounding country. Much has been done 

 here ; and it wants but few additions to be as perfect as the ground 

 admits. 



Reach Ermenonville, through another part of the Prince of Ermenonrille. 

 Conde's forest, which join the ornamented grounds of the Marquis 

 Girardon. 1 This place, after the residence and death of the 



1 Marquis de Girardin, friend of Rousseau, died 1808. 

 O 



