Untrobuction 17 



sight can extend to a distance and to its full scope, 

 where it is varied, where it can be viewed with 

 pleasure. " 



Most of the prominent men of the day were pro- 

 foundly and intelligently interested in landscape garden- 

 ing. Even the monarch of the literary world, at that 

 time, Doctor Samuel Johnson, although a purely city 

 man, hating the country, was obliged to pay attention 

 to landscape gardening and give it a whimsical and 

 grudging criticism and approval. 



France in a less degree, in the midst of the show 

 and display of its decadent civilization doing most of its 

 landscape gardening after the style of Le Notre, still 

 gave this Renaissance of landscape gardening a pro- 

 minent place in its life. Rousseau, the most profound 

 literary influence of the century, made the spirit of 

 the natural style the dominant note in his philosophy, 

 and actually inspired the Marquis Girardon to create 

 through the skill of M. Morel the great estate of Er- 

 menouville, a well-known example of the modem 

 development of the art. 



Arthur Young, writing at the time, thus describes 

 this place: 



"You reach Ermenouvelle through another part of 

 the Prince of Conde's forest which joins the orna- 

 mented grounds of the Marquis Girardon. 



"We were first shown that which is so famous 

 for the smaU Isle of Poplars, in which reposes all 

 that was mortal of that extraordinary and inimitable 



