THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



AUGUST, 1841. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. A Gardening Visit to Paris, from June 28. to August 

 16. 1840. By the Conductor. 



{Coiiiinued from p. 302.) 



Versailles. — We witnessed the magnificent sight of the 

 grandes eaux on the first Sunday in August, and devoted three 

 other days to the pictures and statuary in the palace, the 

 kitchen-garden and forcing-ground, and the gardens and nur- 

 series at the two Trianons. The idea of occupying the palace 

 as a national museum, open to all France, and, indeed, to all 

 mankind, every day in the year, was in accordance with the 

 spirit of the age, and such as might have been expected from a 

 man of so much sound sense and enlightened humanity as the 

 present king. It is a sort of consecration of the labours of 

 Louis XIV,, or rather of his age, which almost reconciles us to 

 their enormous expense. The public gardens were in good 

 order; but the geometrical beds did not appear to us quite so 

 well supplied with flowers as those in the Palais Royal and at 

 Fontainebleau. One scene, however, in the lower part of the 

 garden, made ample amends, by being filled up with geraniums, 

 petunias, fuchsias, and other plants in pots, after the manner 

 of Baron Rothschild's garden at Surenne. This part of the 

 grounds, about an acre in extent, is laid out in the natural 

 manner; and the turf was green, and in very good order. It 

 is surrounded by an irregular border of trees and shrubs, very 

 well broken into recesses and projections; and the interior is 

 varied by groups. All these bays, and the recesses, and also 

 the detached groups, were bosomed up with plants in pots, 

 more especially scarlet geraniums and white petunias. The 

 display is brilliant, and quite different from anything ever seen 

 in England. It is greatly admired by the French ; but we 

 could neither at the time, nor on reflection since, bring our 

 mind to approve of it. Our taste is formed on a different 

 model, that of the secluded lawns and glades of English plea- 

 sure-grounds ; such as are met with, for instance, at Kenwood 

 near Hampstead, at Pain's Hill, and a few first-rate places. Our 

 1841. — VIII. 3d Ser. c c 



