Foreign Notices : — FraJice. 479 



encountered by a landscape-gardener. In the first place, when he is called to 

 arrange a garden or park, the house is often already built, and probably' badly 

 placed : this must, of course, remain, and he must adapt his plan to it as well 

 as he can. There are also other things which the proprietor will not change; 

 there are trees well or ill placed, which he will not cut down, as he wishes 

 to spend as little money as possible, and to save as many of the already planted 

 trees as can be made to give him shady walks, and to form landscape. From 

 these data the landscape-gardener must start ; and, as he is not permitted to 

 destroy fine trees because they are common, he is deprived of the advantages 

 his art might derive from exotic planting. You remark that the style of 

 natural, or landscape, gardening is neither generally understood nor duly appre- 

 ciated in France ; you observe the want of close green turf: this is a general 

 complaint, and, to obviate it by a selection of grass seeds, I tried at Bagatelle 

 Festuca ovina, Jvena pratensis and flavescens, Poa. pratensis angustifolia, and 

 most of the finer sorts ; so that the turf seemed very good. But one season 

 this lawn was attacked by what they call here the ver blanc, or the cockchafer 

 grub, which entirely destroyed the grass, and, together with a flock of birds 

 which came to eat these worms, rendered this lawn like a newly cultivated 

 field. This is a casualty of no uncommon occurrence, but it is one which, 

 I believe, you do not know in England or Scotland, where turf can be cut and 

 rolled up like a piece of cloth. You are quite correct in what you say re- 

 specting the slovenly manner in which the generality of the gardens of France 

 are kept : most of the proprietors enquire how much hay they can have from 

 their lawn, instead of wishing to have a fine turf. The finest grass I have 

 seen about Paris is in some fields near where I live, where the people are con- 

 tinually walking, and which are pastured with goats and asses for milk. This 

 is what may be called natural grass, and, more surprising, is mostly composed 

 of the Pea annua. You observe, very justly, the want of evergreens in the 

 gardens in France; but it is not for the want of planting; there are many of 

 these plants killed here every winter : however, the two last winters having 

 passed with hardly any frost, many plants may be said now to be natu- 

 ralised, as the roots have got far enough into the ground to be safe. I think 

 I wrote, about three years ago, that even the whins [furze] and broom were 

 killed here by the frost, and holly in many places ; so that I now frequently 

 substitute other plants for these, as hardier, although not giving the same 

 effect : among them I may mention the Viburnum Lantana and the Cornus 

 mas, likewise the iSalix caprea, the male of which flowers at the same time 

 with the Cornus : they are both very early-flowering trees, and have a very 

 agreeable effect in a wood or shrubbery. The box likewise grows as underwood. 

 1 saw last autumn, in passing through Champagne, many tracts of land planted 

 with Pinus sylvestris, but they did not seem to thrive. There were also whin 

 hedges planted upon the banks of ditches, which, when 1 was there in March, 

 were in flower, and made an agreea"ble enclosure without stopping the view. I 

 advised several persons to cultivate that plant ; it was very common where I 

 was last autumn, upon the borders of the Loire, and there seemed to be a native 

 kind of the flex europse^a nana, which might almost be called a distinct 

 species. With regard to trees, the chateau called Beauvoir is placed upon a 

 steep bank upon the border of the Loire, and, as the name will inform you, 

 the view is fine : the park or garden runs all along the side of a tolerable hill, 

 covered with wood, such as oaks, hornbeam, &c. There were also some of 

 the J^uniperus communis, very fine trees, some nearly 30 ft. high : in the 

 bottom they had planted a large piece of ground v/ith Lombardy poplars; but 

 most of those planted in the interior were dying. This I have observed in 

 several places ; also that, where these trees are planted in the quincunx manner, 

 they seldom thrive ; while those planted in single rows grow remarkably well. 

 The river Loire makes a fine turn at Beauvoir, and seems to come straight 

 on the chateau : over this there is a noble view extending over some leagues, 

 and some scattered woods. The Chateau de Montigny, belonging to the Prince 

 Laval Montmorency, terminates this extensive view. The Chateau de Mon- 



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