208 
ORNAMENT. 
by its judicious training in the hands of Le 
Notre, in the gardens of Versailles. “ These 
gardens,” says Mr. Phillips, “ which cost 
Louis the Fourteenth between eight and nine 
hundred thousand pounds sterling, are well 
calculated to display courtly pomp, and that 
kind of magnificent revelry which this mo¬ 
narch indulged in. But to us this heavy gran¬ 
deur appears more gloomy than the thickest 
forest, except when the alleys and walks are 
crowded with company, and the water-works 
are in full action. Then every beholder must 
be struck with the splendour of the scene, 
which the dress of the French ladies is parti¬ 
cularly calculated to improve; for the gaiety 
of their costume relieves the sombre appear¬ 
ance of the trained hornbeam and clipped 
elm. Their light gauze, gay ribands, fea¬ 
thers and flowers, substitute blossoms; for, 
whilst one seems to display a basket of roses 
on her head, others carry nodding thyrsuses 
of lilac, or waving laburnum; and with the 
mixture of poppies, nasturtiums, and sun¬ 
flowers, with which they are bedecked, you 
forget that the trees are without blossom, for 
here you see the gay rank of scarlet soldiers, 
and there files of green elms; here wave the 
winged leaves of the acacia, there bows the 
no less pliable head of the courtier; here 
dances thejetd’eau in air, there drops to the 
earth the well-taught curtseying belle; here 
