SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 
189 
among this mass of papers dealing with matters of minor im¬ 
portance is in itself almost sufficient evidence to prove conclu¬ 
sively that he did not come to this country. 1 
The Hampton Court accounts also reveal nothing with 
regard to him. The changes there were very extensive, and 
the avenues and canals were “ near completed ” in 1662. 
There is a pass for “ Christian Van Vranen to go to Holland 
and return with 4,000 lime-trees for the King,” dated 
January ioth, 1662. These were probably for the avenues at 
Hampton Court, and for the rows round the semicircular 
garden, which was the chief feature in the new plan. In the 
centre was a large fountain, with sirens and statues by Farrelli, 
which was removed by William III., besides twelve smaller 
fountains, evidently made to rival the waterworks of Versailles. 
Between the fountains there were geometrical beds and plots of 
grass, each with a conical-shaped yew in the centre. Some of 
these yews, no longer clipped into stiff forms, are still to be 
seen. 
According to a picture at Levens in Westmorland, a certain 
Beaumont was one of the designers of Hampton Court. He was 
probably employed there later, but before the greater changes 
carried out for William III. by London and Wise. The 
inscription on the picture runs thus : “ M. Beaumont, gardener 
to James II. and Colonel James Grahme. He laid out the 
gardens at Hampton Court and at Levens.” Colonel Grahme 
was a staunch adherent of James II., and after the Revolution 
of 1689, for political reasons, found it safest to live in the North, 
on the estate of Levens which he had lately purchased, and it 
was during his time, and under the direction of Beaumont, that 
the gardens assumed the form they retain almost unaltered to 
this day. They are, however, a most perfect example of the 
Dutch type of garden of the period, and even if Beaumont was 
from France, and one of the “ French gardeners ” employed at 
Hampton Court, his work at Levens is not in the style of 
Le Notre. 
The further alterations at Hampton Court will be dealt 
1 None of these State Papers mention Grillet, who by some people 
is said to have come with Le Notre, or carried on work in England for 
him. 
