JANUARY. 
9 
ideas of building and gardening were cut short by troublesome times. 
During the Commonwealth, the times were not much more favourable 
for gardening, and, it was not, therefore, until after the Restoration, 
that gardening, as an art, made any progress in this country. The 
residence of Charles II. on the continent, during Cromwell’s protectorate, 
gave him a knowledge and taste for the style of gardening then getting 
into vogue; or, rather, which had been carried out, on a most magnificent 
scale, at Versailles, then the talk of the world. We find, therefore, that 
when the second Charles took possession of his English residences, he was 
ambitious to imitate the glories of Versailles, Trianon, and St. Germain, 
and, accordingly, invited the famous French architect and gardener. 
La Notre, to this country, and, acting on his plans, great improvements 
were effected, at the royal palaces, in the French style, and a magni¬ 
ficent project for Hampton Court made, but never carried out. As is 
generally the case, when the court sets the example, imitators were 
numerous, and, consequently, the “ French style ” became one of the 
fashionable affairs of the day, and, during the remainder of the seven¬ 
teenth century, all the great places of that time were either improved, 
or re-made entirely, from French designs, furnished either by La 
Notre, or other French artists. Rose was the first Englishman who 
gave designs in this style. Rose was followed by London, who, with 
his partner. Wise, laid out a number of places, during Queen Ann’s 
reign, towards the end of which it fell into disuse. 
What has been termed the Dutch style, introduced by William III., 
who had a magnificent place in the Netherlands, in the same style, 
was nothing more than what La Notre had brought over in the pre¬ 
ceding reigns. The Dutch was a mere imitation of the French style, 
and was called so out of compliment to “ Dutch William,” as he was 
often called by the Jacobins. The French (or Dutch) style may be 
described as being particularly stiff and formal. The ground operated 
on was parcelled out into square plots, which contained the parterre, 
often of elaborate design, and generally laid down in dwarf-box, the 
intervening spaces of the pattern being filled up with coloured gravel. 
Where the ground was uneven, it was formed into terraces, divided by 
low retaining walls, surmounted by balustrading, vases, &c., and the 
divisions connected by flights of steps, alcoves, arbours, hedges, clipped 
to a mathematical nicety, vegetable sculpture {i. e., figures of men, 
animals, birds, &c., cutout of evergreen trees), statues, terms, grotesque 
figures, either cast or in masonry, were the usual accompaniments. 
Water was introduced, in the shape of fountains, basins, or in straight 
canals, to harmonise with the lines of hedges. At times, a deal of 
ingenuity was displayed in arranging the waterworks, and there was 
scarcely a garden with water, but what had some contrivance for playing 
a variety of practical jokes with this element, on the unsuspecting 
lookers-on. The kinds of shrubs employed for cutting out the figures 
alluded to above were the Tree Box, Yew, Holly, Phillyrea, Juniper, 
Cypress, and sometimes the Spruce Fir. The principal plants for the cut 
hedges were the Yew, Box, Holly, and Laurel, as Evergreens, and the 
Beech, Hornbeam, and Lime, for larger hedges, many of which were 
of immense size, and costing much pains and care to keep them to their 
