HAMPTON COURT 55 



home park at Hampton Court, as he certainly did St. James's 

 and Greenwich Parks. Arguments in favour of this view 

 may be found in the strong resemblance there is between 

 the plan at Hampton Court and known examples of Le 

 Notre's work at Versailles and other places in France, and 

 St. James's Park and Kensington Palace Gardens in England. 

 Again, Charles had been brought up near the court of Louis 

 XIV., the chief patron of Le Notre, and is said by Evelyn 

 to have introduced many French notions into England ; 

 whereas William was at constant enmity with the " Grand 

 Monarch." More important still, there is the positive state- 

 ment of Switzer that the great semicircle of limes was 

 planted by Charles. Switzer was a practical gardener, a 

 pupil of London and Wise, with whom he worked, probably 

 in these very gardens. At all events he shows in his writings 

 that he had an intimate knowledge of the place, and he wrote 

 at or very near the time of planting, and as an eye-witness. 

 On the other hand there is the generally accepted tradition 

 that Hampton Court owes everything to William, backed up 

 by Defoe's Tour through Great Britain, in which he says 

 the whole plan was " devised by the King (William) himself," 

 and alludes to the removing of some of the trees which had 

 " been almost thirty years planted in other places." Defoe, 

 however, not like Switzer, wrote thirty or forty years after 

 the event, and from hearsay only. Evelyn, who happens to 

 mention both London and Wise, makes no reference to Le 

 Notre. But this may be because he had some natural jealousy 

 of French influences, and because even he could not allude 

 to every one by name. For instance he does not mention 

 Rose, who was appointed head gardener to the King about 

 1663. On the whole, therefore, it appears that credit for the 

 grand semicircular design, which is the main feature and 

 keynote, as it were, of the east garden, should be given to 

 Charles and Le Notre and not to William, although the 

 latter undoubtedly made good use of the splendid opportunity 

 presented, and did an immense amount towards perfecting 

 the original plan. Rose, just referred to, was one of the 



