26 



THE planter's GUIDE. 



But Louis XIV. was, without doubt, tlie greatest trans- 

 planter of modern times, and the individual whose example 

 operated more powerfully than any other in bringing the 

 art into fashion in Europe in the seventeenth century. 

 From the researches of the learned Jesuits and others, 

 who by this prince's order had rendered the classics fami- 

 liar to the Dauphin, he learned that the practice was well 

 known to the Greeks and Romans ; and he resolved to 

 rival, and if possible to eclipse, whatever had been done 

 in this way by those distinguished nations. 



Accordingly, among the stupendous changes which he 

 made on the face of nature at Versailles, and other royal 

 residences, that by means of transplanting was not 

 omitted. All the arts of ingenuity, and all the efforts 

 of expense and labour, were employed in constructing 

 machinery for so novel an undertaking. Under the 

 direction of Le Notre, his favourite engineer in this 

 department,"' the most extraordinary feats in transplant- 

 ing were performed, both at Versailles and Trianon. 

 Immense trees were torn up by the roots, erected on 

 carriages, and removed at the will and pleasure of the 

 royal planter. Almost the whole Bois de Boulogne was 

 in this way said to be transported from Versailles to its 

 present site, a distance of about two leagTies and a half 

 To order the march of an army was the effort of common 

 men and every-day commanders ; to order the removal 

 of a forest seemed to suit the magnificent conceptions of 

 a prince who, in all his enterprises, affected to act upon 

 a scale immeasurably greater than that of his contempo- 

 raries, and who probably was the most powerful monarch 

 in Europe, whether of his own or of any other age. In 

 the Bois de Boulogne, in spite of mihtary devastation, 



Note XII. 



