SECTION II. 



383 



Note XII. Page 26. 



As gardening, in its largest sense, is so intimately connected with our 

 present subject, and as Le Notre was the person whose example swayed 

 the taste of all Europe, Great Britain only excepted, for more than a 

 century, and still continues to sway the greater part of it, it may be 

 worth while in this place to bestow a brief notice on the style and 

 character of both the man and his works. 



Le Notre was by profession an architect, and by his uncommon 

 turn for garden decoration, became a first-rate favourite with Louis 

 XIV. ; who, besides ennobling him, bestowed on him the appointment 

 of Comptroller-General of Buildings, and Director of the Royal Gardens. 

 To the rectilinear gardens, and elaborate topiary works handed down 

 from antiquity, he added rich parterres, and magnificent triumphal 

 arches, long and straight alleys, lofty cascades and fountains, with 

 their grotesque and strange decorations, grottos filled with architecture, 

 and trellis- work covered with gilding ; and these, intermixed with a 

 multitude of Thermes and Statues, seemed to the French, unaccustomed 

 as they were to relish the real beauties of nature, the ne plus ultra of 

 human invention. Professor Hirschfeld of Kiel, the German historian 

 of modern gardening, from whom we derive these particulars, says, that 

 it was the personal character of the monarch himself, and the taste of 

 the age, which began to be attracted towards the restoration of the fine 

 arts, that chiefly raised Le Notre to the summit of fame and popularity. 

 But the nation as well as the court wanted to be dazzled ; and both 

 were captivated and enchanted with what seemed at once to unite 

 novelty with singularity. Ornament and tinsel, pomp and brilliancy, 

 were thus universally preferred to correct taste and true greatness of 

 design. It must, however, be acknowledged, adds this judicious writer, 

 that Le Notre's genius was admirably suited to the taste of the times in 

 which he lived, and fully gratified the leading prejudices of the French 

 character. " Die Nation, so wohl als der Hof wolten nur geblendet, 

 nur durch das Neue und Ausserordentliche angezaubert werden. Man 

 sahe mehr auf das, was Glanz und Pracht hatte, als auf reinen Gesch- 

 mack, und stille Grosse. Es ist abernicht zu laugnen, dass die Manier 

 des Le Notre gerade dieses herrschende Vorurtheil, diesen Geschmack 

 seiner Zeit befriedichte.'' — Theorie der Gartenhunst, B. v. p. 255. 



Le Notre's masterpiece was the gardens at Versailles, which cost two 

 hundred millions of livres. He laid out, besides, Trianon, Meudon, St 

 Cloud, Chantilly, &c. In 1678 he went to Italy, England, and other coun- 

 tries, which one and all adopted his style. King Charles II. sent for him, 

 to improve the taste of the English, when he laid out St James's Park and 



