210 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



persecuted, but immortal Rousseau, whose tomb every one knows 

 is here, became so famous as to be resorted to very generally. 

 It has been described, and plates published of the chief views ; to 

 enter into a particular description would therefore be tiresome, I 

 shall only make one or two observations, which I do not recollect 

 having been touched on by others. It consists of three distinct 

 water scenes ; or of two lakes and a river. We were first shown 

 that which is so famous for the small Isle of Poplars, in which 

 reposes all that was mortal of that extraordinary and inimitable 

 writer. This scene is as well imagined, and as well executed as 

 could be wished. The water is between forty and fifty acres ; 

 hills rise from it on both sides, and it is sufficiently closed in by 

 tall wood at both ends, to render it sequestered. The remains of 

 departed genius stamp a melancholy idea, from which decoration 

 would depart too much, and accordingly there is little. We 

 viewed the scene in a still evening. The declining sun threw a 

 lengthened shade on the lake, and silence seemed to repose on 

 its unruffled bosom; as some poet says, I forget who. The 

 worthies to whom the temple of philosophers is dedicated, and 

 whose names are marked on the columns, are Newton, Lucem. 

 Descartes, Nil in rebus inane. Voltaire, Ridiculum. Rousseau, 

 Naturam. And on another unfinished column, Quis hoc perficietl 

 The other lake is larger ; it nearly fills the bottom of the vale, 

 around which are some rough, rocky, wild and barren sand hills ; 

 either broken or spread with heath ; in some places wooded, and 

 in others scattered thinly with junipers. The character of the 

 scene is that of wild and undecorated nature, in which the hand 

 of art was meant to be concealed as much as was consistent with 

 ease of access. The last scene is that of a river, which is made 

 to wind through a lawn, receding from the house, and broken by 

 wood : the ground is not fortunate \ it is too dead a flat, and no 

 where viewed to much advantage. 



Trianon. To Trianon, to view the Queen's Jardin Anglais. I had a 

 letter to Mons. Richard, which procured admittance. It contains 

 about 100 acres, disposed in the taste of what we read of in books 



