BENJAMIN DISRAELI 265 



aujourd'hui tout bourgeois dans sa ville de province. Meme, 

 dans les espaces plus vastes que Paris consacre a. cette fiction, 

 n'esperez pas trouver le charme de la nature. Le plus petit 

 recoin des roches de Fontainebleau ou des collines boisees de 

 1'Auvergne, la plus mince cascatelle de Gargilesse, le plus ignore 

 des meandres de 1'Indre ont une autre tournure, une autre saveur, 

 une autre puissance de penetration que les plus somptueuses 

 compositions de nos paysagistes de Paris ! si vous voulez voir le 

 jardin, de la creation, n'allez pas au bout du monde. II y en a 

 dix mille en France dans des endroits oil personne n'a affaire ou 

 dont peisonne ne s'avise. Cherchez, vous trouverez ! 



Mais si vous voulez voir le jardin decor atif^xt excellence, vous 

 1'aurez a Paris, et disons bien vite que 1'invention en est ravissante. 

 C'est du decor, pas autre chose, prenez-en votre parti, mais du 

 decor adorable et merveilleux. La science et le gout s'y sont 

 donne la main ; inclinez-vous, c'est un jeune menage. La Reverie 

 a Paris (Paris Guide. 1867.) 1 



A RHINE PLACE, before Sir Ferdinand, unfortunately for his BENJAMIN 

 **- descendants, determined in the eighteenth century on build- P* SR ,?H 



r Ji i i J i ' f J (l804-l88l). 



ing a feudal castle, had been situate in famous pleasure-grounds, 

 which extended at the back of the mansion over a space of some 

 hundred acres. The grounds in the immediate vicinity of the 

 buildings had of course suffered severely, but the far greater 

 portion had only been neglected ; and there were some indeed 

 who deemed, as they wandered through the arbour-walks of this 

 enchanting wilderness, that its beauty had been enhanced even 

 by this very neglect. It seemed like a forest in a beautiful 

 romance j a green and bowery wilderness where Boccacio would 

 have loved to woo, and Watteau to paint. So artfully had the 

 walks been planned that they seemed interminable; nor was 



1 Never before or since has such a constellation of the genius of a whole 

 nation gathered together to produce such a Guide-book, as Paris out-did 

 herself by publishing in 1867. It is perhaps the highest achievement of the 

 Third Empire. 



