Chap. XIV.] 



THE GARDENS OF VERSAILLES. 



213 



suffering from repression and overcrowding, is seen on one side of 

 the palace here. This monstrosity arose from the childish desire 

 to represent various kinds of gardens, a desire which still prevails 

 among us to some extent. Instead of using our knowledge to 

 express all the beauty possible in gardens, and in many ways, 

 some have offered us in the name of landscape-gardening a patch- 

 work composed of a variety of barbarisms. Having exhausted 



View on th£ English^garden Side of the Little Trianon. 



the watery fancies (or misfortunes) of the Dutch, dug up scroll- 

 gardens of gravel from old books, shaved the branches of trees 

 into dismal uniformity, they have gone even as far as China for 

 models. There is no example of a garden where this patchwork- 

 system has any but a harmful effect. Let us leave such gardening 

 in books. There it always looks better than in fact. Artists are 

 generous in touches that make ugly things graceful. We do not 

 make the garden more varied by such practices. They simply 



