GENTLEMEN ADVENTURERS 49 



mention of it proves its use in America — and why not 

 for just this purpose of working out fanciful designs? 

 "Where living borders were not used, oak boards, tiles, 

 the shank bones of sheep thrust into the ground, or 

 "round whitish or blewish stones" took their place, 

 these of course forming open beds or knots. There- 

 fore it was within inclosures of this sort that flowers 

 were usually set. 



Such were the gardens from which the earliest Cava- 

 liers came to the new world — and such, in a measure, 

 must have been the earliest ideals which they would 

 labor here to realize. But the later immigrants, and 

 travelers who came to visit, brought newer "fashions" 

 than the gardeners of Elizabeth's age had known; for 

 during the exile of Charles II into France he had been 

 inspired by the beauties of Versailles, and upon his 

 return at the Restoration, he diligently set about re- 

 producing them. 



The great Le Notre, designer and builder of these 

 wonderful gardens, which the splendidest of the 

 Louis, the "Grand Monarch," caused to be 

 planted on an arid plain at such tremendous cost, was 

 invited to come to England and undertake work on 

 the royal gardens there. It is not known that he ac- 

 cepted, but certainly alterations were made in them 

 that embodied his principles, and if they were not 

 superintended by him personally, they were the work 



