i86 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND 
vious position in Sweden, and as pupil of his father, who had 
held an honourable one in France, he probably considered him¬ 
self quite capable of making his own designs, without appealing 
to Le Notre. Moreover, it appears from the following interest¬ 
ing letters that it was for Greenwich that Charles II. especially 
desired the services of Le Notre. It seemed, when M. Edouard 
Andre, a few years ago, discovered these fragments among the 
papers relating to foreign affairs in Paris, that the mystery of 
the visit to England would at length be cleared up. 1 But while 
they fix the time of his intended visit, they offer no proof that 
he actually came. 
M. Bataillev 2 d de Lionne ( fragment ). 
Mai, 1662. 
Le Roi d’Angleterre se promenant, il y a deux jours, dans le pare 
de St. James, et me parlant des embellissements qu’il pretendait faire 
dans ses maisons, et particulierement a Greenwich, me temoigna qu’il 
aurait besoin pour cela de M. Lenostre qui a la conduite des jardins du 
Roi, et qu’il me priait d’en ecrire a Sa Majeste, afin qu’elle voulut lui 
permettre de faire un voyage en Angleterre; depuis, j ’ai su qu’il a charge 
le Comte de Saint Albans de l’amener avec lui au retour de son ambas- 
sade ; il part dans deux jours pour Portsmouth, d’ou il doit passer en 
France, soudain apres que la Reine d’Angleterre aura debarque. 
Le Roi [Louis XIV.] d M. Bataillev (fragment). 
Quoique j’aie tous les jours besoin de Lenostre, qui est fort occupe 
pour moi a Fontainebleau, je lui permettrai volontiers d’aller faire un 
tour en Angleterre, puisque le Roi le desire. 
A Paris, le 28 Mai, 1662. 
The Comte de St. Albans here referred to was Henry Jermyn, 
who was created Earl of St. Albans at the Restoration. He 
was constantly going to and fro between England and France 
on missions of State. 3 In 1660 he was Ambassador Extra- 
1 I am indebted to the courtesy of M. Edouard Andre for permission 
to publish these letters, which he found wdien collecting material for 
a life of Le Notre, a work not yet completed. 
2 There is a “ passport for Mr. Batailler to return to France with his 
baggage ” in the Record Office State Papers, France (vol cxvi., p. 113). 
It has no date, but is endorsed in a modern hand “ about 1662.” 
3 Rushbrooke Parish Registers, 1567-1856 ; also with Jermyn and 
Davers’ Annals, by S. H. A. IL, Bury St. Edmunds, 1902. 
