GARDENS OF THE LOUVRE AND THE TUILERIES. 9 



best attempts in our so very much larger and busier 

 London. 



The Gardens of the Louvre and the Tuileries. 



The Place du Carrousel, stretching between the Palaces of 

 the Louvre and the Tuileries, is a large open paved square 

 by no means attractive, but at its eastern end it merges into 

 the narrower Place Napoleon III., to which I wish more par- 

 ticularly to direct attention. The Place is inclosed on three 

 sides by the splendid buildings of the new Louvre, and is 

 embellished with two little gardens surrounded by railings 

 with gilt spears. The Place du Carrousel, surrounded by 

 Palaces, is perfectly bare and without ornament, except the 

 triumphal arch that stands at _ 



the main entrance of the court 

 of the Tuileries, but looking to- 

 wards the Louvre the eye is in- 

 stantly refreshed by these little 

 gardens, veritable oases in a wil- 

 derness of paving stone. I know 

 of no spot more capable of teach- 

 ing some of the most valuable les- 

 sons in city-gardening than this. 

 Viewed externally from their 

 immediate surroundings, or from 

 the more distant Tuileries square, 



the gardens have a verv pretty rii , TT^T^T^TT 



D • . L Arc de Tnomplie du Carrousel. 



enect, and show at once the 



utility of such, not only for their own sakes, but also as an 

 aid to architecture. On the one hand you have a space 

 as devoid of vegetation as the desert — on the other, by 

 the creation of the simplest types of garden, you relieve 

 the sculptor's work in stone and the changeless lines of the 

 great buildings by the living grace of vegetation, so as to 

 make the scene of the most refreshing kind, and all by 

 merely encroaching a little on the space that would other- 

 wise be monopolized by paving stones. The gardens are 

 very small and most simple in plan, a circle of grass, a 

 walk, and a belt of hardy trees and shrubs around the 



