Book I. 



GARDENING IN FRANCE. 



37 



ICS. WateteVs garden, the Moulin joli^ the next example of the English style in France, is of a very 

 different description from Ermenonville. Watelet is the author of an Essai sur les Jardins, which an- 

 jiearod in 1774. His garden was situated in the suburbs of Paris, on the Seine, and contained about four 

 acres, varied by buildings, grottoes, temples, and inscriptions, and was, on the whole, more in the Chinese 

 style, than in that of Kent or Shenstone. The author, who professes to take utility for the basis of his 

 art, seems to have felt something wanting, in this i)articular,- to his temples and altars, and is ridiculed 

 by Hirschfield {Theorie des Jardins, torn. i. p. 168.) for proposing occasionally " de faire paroitre aiipres 

 les temples, et les autels, les arcs de triomphe, ^c. une troupe de pantomimes, vetues suivant Ic costume neces- 

 saire, iinitant des certmonies, faisant dcs sacrifices, allant porter des offrandes," Scc. The Prince de Ligne 

 admired Watelet 's garden almost as much as that of Girardin, though in so different a style. After de- 

 scribing it, lie says, " Allex-y, incredules. . . . Meditezsur les inscriptions que le gout y a dictees. Meditez 

 avec le sage, saupii-ez avec Vamant, et benissez Watelet." (jVew. et Lettres, Scc. 2o0.) The object of such 

 as attempt English gardening in France on a small scale is still more to imitate the garden of Watelet, 

 than the " passages interessans" of Girardin. 



169. other English or mixed gardens ivhich existed before the Revolution, the garden 

 cf Mouceau, the property of the Duke of Orleans, was laid out by Blaikey, a British 

 landscape-gardener resident in France, in a romantic and irregular style. Blaikey also 

 formed some scenes in the Petit Trianon, especially in the lower part of the grounds, now 

 occupied by ruins, water, and a cottage, and in their kind very picturesque. It was here 

 that the queen of Louis XVI. used to entertain her guests habited as a shepherdess ; 

 that the citizens used to holdi fetes champeires during the Revolution ; and that Napoleon 

 made a residence for Maria Louisa. Having reverted to the Bourbons, it is now com- 

 paratively neglected and dilapidated. (Hort. Tour, 406.) Bagatelle, in the Bois de 

 Bologne, formerly the retreat of Count d'Artois, and the Duke of Orleans's park at 

 Raincy, were laid out, in 1779, in the same taste, and by the same artist. The Jardin 

 de ilfarfite?//" was planted by the Chevalier Jansin, an Englishman. {Ed. Encyc.yiW 



De Lille cites the gardens of Belceil, the chateau of the Prince de Ligne. Montreuil, a 

 garden of the Princess Gremen^ ; JNIaupertuis, a garden of the Marquis de Montes- 

 quieu, with a beautifully varied surface, abundance of wood and Avater, and a desert 

 after the manner of Mereville. He mentions several others, all of which are figured in 

 Hecueil des Jardins, 16 cahiers, folio, and m^ost of them described by Hirschfield (tom. i. 

 Sc v.), who considers Mereville and Ermenonville, as the two best specimens of Englisli 

 gardening in France. 



Mereville, the seat of M. La Borde, was one of the most considerable in France, and was laid out im. 

 mediately before the Revolution under the guidance of Robert, a famous landscape-painter. The chateau 

 stood on a terrace, and commanded a distant prospect over a marsh originally of little interest. But the 

 wall of this terrace was covered with artificial rock-work, a river farmed in the marsh with a bridge and 

 cascade. The general surface was raised by earth, and on the right and left of the view from the house 

 were raised considerable hills of earth, the one surmounted by a column 120 feet high, serving as a prospect- 

 tower, and the other by a Doric temple of 17 columns. At the base of one hill was a magnificent grotto 

 and rocks, and near the other stables in the character of Gothic ruins. Various buildings were erected in 

 other parts of the grounds ; one to the memory of Captain Cook, and another to that of M. Laborde's two 

 sons, who perished in the voyage of La Peyrouse. Every hardy exotic tree was planted, and many of them, 

 as the tulip-tree, ailanthus, sophora, &c. grew with great vigor and flowered luxuriantly. Many millions 

 of francs were expended on this place, which for some years past has been falling into decay and has been 

 lately sold in lots. 



One of the finest modern parks in France is that of D'Argenson near Vienne. Mathews {Diary 

 of an Invalid) considered it superior to any thing of the kind he had seen in France or Italy, and says it re- 

 minded him of his native,Wye, audits picturesque banks. 



170. English gardening during the consulate was little attended to, Malmaison, the 

 residence of Josephine, was laid out avowedly in the English style by Blorel, and greatly 

 altered and improved by Blaikie and the English resident gardener, Hudson ; and richly 

 stocked with trees and shrubs from London. Since that time little has been done on an 

 extended plan ; and one may travel from one extremity of the kingdom to the other, 

 without seeing any scene having the general external appearance of an English park. 

 The works of this kind which are executed, are on a very limited scale, and crowded 

 with walks and ornaments. Most of them may be called fanciful, ingenious, and pretty, 

 but few are simple and grand. {Dulatire Desc. des Env. de Paris, and Hort. Toitr, 557. 

 et seq. ) All that a Frenchman considers necessary to form a Jardin Anglois, Blaikie 

 states to us, is crooked walks. Blaikie went to France in 1776, remained there during 

 the Revolution, and has been employed by all parties. The directory employed him to 

 plant the Tuilleries with potatoes, and never paid him for the sets ; and the national 

 assembly in 1792, appointed him commissioner for the establishment of a botanic garden 

 at Versailles, but he declined the employment. This venerable artist is still employed in 

 all the eminent cases in France, Holland, and the south of Germany. 



171. The French revolution, however favorable to the progress of society, by the 

 emancipation of energies and intellects, and by the general subdivision and distribution 

 of property, has, as was to be expected, been injurious to gardening as an art of design ; 

 but if once the nation were politically content, a few years of quiet and prosperity, by en- 

 riching some and impoverishing others, would end in grouping property in more unequal 

 masses ; and the superfluous wealth of the opulent would be employed as before, under 

 the advantages of much more skill to display, and taste to approve what is beautiful or 

 excellent. 



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