VERSAILLES. 



243 



as they are ever accompanied by a day-gbost of wasted 

 effort — of ricbes worse tban lost. 



In connexion witb tbe Crystal Palace one tbinks of 

 ruined sbarebolders ; and witb Versailles_, of tbe enormous 

 sums TTTung from an oppressed people, and put to sucb a 

 miserable use, tbat one can scarcely regret a wild blood- 

 dance of revolution came and put an end to it all. And 

 tbis was tbe kind of good effected witb tbe money so bardly 

 wrung from starving millions ! It was merely burying 

 wealtb — indeed_, it migbt bave been better to bave buried 

 it, for many would prefer tbe naked eartb to tbese gyra- 

 tions, wbicb must be kept in repair at great cost or tbey 

 become intolerable even to tbeir builders and designers. 



Wben a private individual indulges in expensive fancies, 

 lie bas small influence to injure any one but bimself ; but 

 wben tbe place is a public one, and set up as an example 

 of all tbat is admirable, tben, in addition to tbe first wasteful 

 expenditure, we bave an object burtful to tbe public taste, 

 and sowing tbe seed of its ugliness all over tbe country. 



It may be said tbat our taste in England is sufficiently 

 assured against tbis ; but it is not so. I bave known tbose 

 whose lawns were or migbt readily be made tbe most 

 beautiful of gardens, ruin them, and for tbe mere sake of 

 having a terraced garden. There is a modern castle in 

 Scotland where tbe embankments are piled one above 

 another till the thing looks as if tbe Chinese who carve the 

 ivory balls bad been invited to make a corresponding ar- 

 rangement in tbe fortification style. "Were it a matter of 

 trifling cost, or which could be easily abolished or even 

 avoided, it would not be worthy our attention ; but being 

 so expensive that it may curtail for years the legitimate 

 outlay for a garden, and prevent expenditure in live interest 

 rather than in slow crumbling monotony, too much cannot 

 be urged against it. The style was in doubtful taste in 

 climates and positions more suited to it tban those of 

 northern France and England ; but he who would now 

 adopt it in an age when civilization has set its formal brand 

 upon everything, and in the presence of the inexhaustible 

 and magnificent collections of trees and plants which we 



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