250 



THE PARKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. XVI. 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

 A FKW Notes on Private Gardens. 



The contrast between 

 French and English 

 country life is strongly 

 marked, and nowhere 

 more so than in the 

 garden. The effect of 

 the love of gardens and 

 trees in England is to 

 make the country the 

 most beautiful on earth 

 — parts blighted by 

 smoke and cinders not 

 included. The expla- 

 nation of the unri- 

 valled charms of rural 

 England is found in the 

 groves that make the 

 landscape lovely with 

 their clouds of verdure 

 and varied forms. The 

 best-cultivated parts of Belgium and France are devoid of such 

 charms from the absence of trees. The streets of many fine 

 continental towns are as arid as a barrack-yard from the same 

 cause. Gardening abroad, as with us, has received a great impetus 

 within the past score of years ; in France this is mainly seen in the 

 gardens of the middle-class. In the homes of the old families in 

 France we see no such evidence of love for the art as we have at 



r^' 



io Montreuil). 



