Chap. XIV.] THE GARDENS OP VERSAILLES. 199 



for years the legitimate outlay for a garden, and prevent ex- 

 penditure in living objects of the highest value, rather than in 

 slow crumbling monotony, too much cannot be urged against it. 

 The style is in doubtful taste in climates and positions more suited 

 to it than those of northern France and England; but he who 

 would adopt it in the present age, and in the presence of the in- 

 exhaustible and magnificent collections of trees and plants now 

 within our reach is an enemy to every true interest of the garden. 

 Versailles is one of the places in which the terraced garden 

 is least appropriate. At Eome, where the immediate environs, 

 unlike those of Naples, Genoa, and many other cities, are not 

 hilly, the fashionable resorts, such as Tivoli and Frascati, were of 

 a character to necessitate the terrace ; the rude stone wall of the 

 husbandman supporting a narrow slip of soil for his Olive-trees 

 or Vines became, in the ornamental garden of the wealthy Eoman, 

 an architectural feature, varied by vases, statues, etc. It is 

 essential to bear in mind that the beauty of an Italian or 

 geometrical garden of any kind will depend on the predominance 

 of vegetation over the merely artificial. This may be said to be 

 true of all gardens, and so it is, no doubt ; but it applies to the 

 terraced style more than to any other, inasmuch as it is in that 

 style that artificial features are most predominant. Terraced 

 gardens, allowing of an endless variety of architectural work, 

 apart from that of the house, have naturally been much in favour 

 with architects and artists who have taken up the profession of 

 landscape-gardener. The landscape-gardener proper, so to say, 

 impressed by " orthodox " custom, and not attempting to think 

 for himself, chimes in with the popular notion that every house, 

 in no matter what position, should be fortified by terraces. 

 Accordingly he busies himself in forming terrace-gardens, usually 

 on level ground, which is unsuitable for them. Hence it comes 

 that vast sums, ostensibly devoted to the garden, are spent on 

 waterworks, fountains, vases, statues, balustrades, walls, and 

 stucco-work. By the extensive use of such materials many a noble 

 lawn is cut up ; and, sometimes, as at Witley Court, the archi- 

 tectural gardening is pushed so far into the park , as absolutely 

 to curtail and injure the prospect— that is, if the prospect of a 

 noble, well-wooded park or arboretum is better than that of a 

 posing-ground for the objects above enumerated. Many of the 



