184 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 



accause que la fleur a Ressemblance au Ranonculle et deuient 

 fort large la douzaine Reuient a trente liures cy . . . . 030W 



jtam vne douzaine de gros ognons de jacinthe double auecque 

 vne douzaine de jonq'uille jaune le tout Reuient a vingt liures 

 cy . . . . . . . . . . • • 020II 



Somme totalle du presant Memoire ce Monte a quatorze 



cent quatre vingts sept liures cy . . . . 1487W 



This present Bill comes to jn english Money one 

 hundred and fifteene pound .. .. .. 115^ 



[Endorsed :] Molet y e Gardin'. 



Although Adrian May rightly drew attention to the exorbi- 

 tant charges in the above account, he does not seem to have 

 always been as particular in settling just claims, for on De- 

 cember 16, 1663, there was a petition from " the labourers who 

 have worked in the Royal Gardens, under Mr. Mollet, to the 

 King for payment of wages. They have worked 31 weeks and 

 received nothing." 1 



Andrew Mollett is the one of the family here referred to, 

 and he was the most important. He is really Andr6 Mollet, 

 and was the brother of Noel, and son and pupil of Claude 

 Mollet, chief gardener both to Henry IV. and Louis XIII., 

 who had died about 1613. A work by Claude, entitled 

 Theatre des Plans et Jardinages, was published by his 

 sons in 1652. The plates in this work are signed by Noel, 

 Jacques, and Andre Mollet. 2 Andre himself was the author of 

 a work entitled Le Jardin de Plaisir, published in Stockholm 

 in 1651. 3 He gives a portrait of his father on the engraved 

 title, and describes himself as " Maitre des Jardins de la reine 

 de Su£de " (the celebrated and eccentric Queen Christina). 

 Later on, after he had been established in St. James's Park, 

 he published another book with the same title in English, The 

 Garden of Pleasure* containing designs for gardens, and dedi- 



1 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1663-1664, p. 357. 



2 Brunet, Manuel du Libraire, 1862. There were other editions — 1663 

 and 1678. 



3 There is a copy of this book in the British Museum (said by Brunet 

 to be rare) . 



* I only know of one copy of this book, which is at Lyme Park, in 

 the possession of Lord Newton, and from which the extracts quoted 

 here have been made. 



