BOOK REVIEWS. 



439 



BOOK REVIEWS. 



" Garden Craft in Europe." By H. Inigo Triggs. La. 8vo., 332 pp. 

 (B. T. Batsford, London, 1913.) £1 15s. net. 



This is a very handsome book, well printed on art paper, copiously 

 illustrated and stoutly bound in an attractively designed cover. 



The subject is a comprehensive one, for the author tells us about 

 garden craft in Europe from the earliest ages when Greek and Roman 

 were laying the foundations of an art that has always appealed most 

 strongly to the succeeding nations as they have progressed in 

 civilization. 



The reader in turning over the leaves will not fail to be struck with 

 the elegance and artistic nature of many of the illustrations. The 

 frontispiece is a fine portrait of that prince of French gardeners, the 

 great Le Notre ; and one or two other portraits of celebrated garden 

 designers such as " Capability " Brown, Humphrey Repton, Jan 

 Vredeman de Vries, are not less interesting. About a dozen full- 

 paged plates, mostly views in famous gardens, are reproduced in collo- 

 type adding beauty to the general excellence of the illustrations that 

 are profusely inserted throughout the work. There are approximately 

 three hundred of these, done in photogravure or similar process and 

 consisting of garden plans, views of historic gardens and a variety of 

 vases of artistic design, and the many accessories connected with the 

 embellishment of gardens at home and abroad. Some quaint, repro- 

 ductions of garden scenes from medieval manuscripts, " The Romaunt 

 of the Rose," " The Grimani Breviary," &c, are also included. 



The text is divided into eleven chapters in which the author 

 discourses in a most attractive manner upon the ancient gardens of 

 Europe, passing on to a review of those of the Middle Ages. The 

 chapter on Italian gardens forms by no means the least interesting 

 portion of the volume to the reader who has had the joy of wandering 

 through them, or some of them. We note especially the pictures and 

 references to the gardens of the Vatican, Boboli, the Villa Castello, 

 Villa Marlia, Villa Caprarola, Villa Lante, &c, but of course those 

 who wish for fuller information upon this subject will turn to the 

 much more important work by Mr. Triggs published a few years ago, 

 a grand folio, bearing the title of " The Art of Garden Design in Italy." 



Nearly a hundred pages are devoted to a consideration of the 

 French gardens of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and 

 an entire chapter is given on Le Notre and Versailles. The gardens at 

 Fontainebleau, Vaux-le-Comte, Chantilly, Versailles with the Trianons, 

 Meudon, Marly, St. Cloud, and others receive liberal treatment which 

 will be highly appreciated by the critical reader. We have only one 

 little criticism at this point to make, and that is that our author 



