390 THE PRAISE OF GARDENS 



The reaction in favour of the natural garden was largely assisted 

 by the letters of the French Jesuit Missionaries describing the 

 Chinese Emperor's gardens at Pekin. 



The Pere Attiret's description of the ' Garden of Gardens ' was 

 translated by Joseph Spence in 1752 and the spark kindled a flame 

 of enthusiasm throughout Europe. Here is one of the innumer- 

 able scenes of this Panorama of Gardens, taken from a Chinese 

 painting of the same period in the National Library in Paris. 1 

 The Chinese trace back the origin of their gardens to the re- 

 motest antiquity (2600 B.C.). Attiret describes the artificial hills 

 20 to 60 feet high with little valleys interspersed, rivers and rivulets 

 running together through these to form lakes with pleasure-houses, 

 to the number of 200 on their banks ; the rough irregular rock- 

 work twisting and winding paths, and bridges which also ser- 

 pentised. One of the lakes was nearly five miles round, studded 

 with islands and rocks and with infinitely varied banks. 



Sir William Chambers, the King's Architect, who as a youth 

 had lived in China, wrote an enthusiastic panegyric of their 

 gardens, and on being appointed Superintendent of the Royal 

 Gardens, proceeded to lay out Kew with Pagodas in the Chinese 

 style. 2 The Chinese way of following Nature was a peculiar 

 one, and consisted in creating mountains where they did not 

 exist. It is true that they made these mountains to resemble 

 ' natural ' ones as closely as possible, but they were none the less 

 artificial for all that, then they came to the conclusion that nature 

 abhorred a straight line, so all their paths and approaches were 

 made to serpentine. Landscape gardening, as understood in the 

 1 8th Century, may be defined as the curved versus the straight 

 line. As William Mason versified it : 



To melt in fluent curves vvhate'er is straight. 

 Acute or parallel . . . 



Fair variety 



Lives only where she undulates and sports 

 In many a winding train. 



1 See also Le Rouges' ' Recueil des Plans des plus beaux Jardins,' Paris, 

 1787-1790. 



- See ante pp. 183-186. 



