THE PARC DES BUTTES CHAUMONT. 



61 



Tlie entrance is not promising — a hard-looking porter^s 

 lodge_, and a mass of badly-made rockwork face a mound_, 

 and from the rockwork sj^rings an apparently quite un- 

 necessary bridge. The rockwork is bad because^ although 

 superior in general design to the masses of burnt bricks 

 that sometimes pass for it with us_, it shows radical faults 

 — presumption and unnaturalness. Instead of a true rock- 

 work^ something like a very puny attempt at reproducing 

 the more insignificant ribs of Monte Campione is the result 

 of plastering over a heap of stones. A hole is left here 

 and there in this mass from which may spring a small pine 

 or an ivy, but the whole thing is incapable of being di- 

 vested of its bald artificial character. One-fourth the 

 quantity of natural blocks of stone^ visible through the 

 breaks in a mass of evergreens^ would have been far better. 

 By this means one could get the necessary elevation^ con- 

 cealing the basis of the stones with evergreens and trailing 

 plants^ and not sealing up the thing with cement in any 

 part. The plastering of the joints merely makes the 

 '^rocks'''' look truly artificial^, especially when it begins to 

 drop out. 



Bold high green mounds meet us immediately after pass- 

 ing under the ugly bridge at the entrance — here and there 

 patched with very presentable shrubs — as is not rarely the 

 case in Paris gardens. One girdle seems to bind both French 

 and English^ however,, as regards the compact and formal 

 outlines of these shrubberies and plantings. We know 

 very well that in nature nothing of the kind ever occurs; 

 that away from the wood strays the clump of low shrubs 

 which do not seem to be gregarious like their pillared fellows 

 of the forest ; that indeed anything like straitlacing is 

 unseen. Why then should we draw a cordon of regularity 

 and sameness round our shrubberies in the shape of a line 

 of some showy flower^ making the whole thing change- 

 less as possible ? What calls for this definiteness ? I 

 know not unless it be that the mowing machine may have 

 the less trouble in cutting the grass around. Imagine the 

 British Museum or the Louvre arranged chiefly for the con- 

 venience of the dusters ! The sooner everybody having the 



