Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/408

 330 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. T ov., attracted the notice of Louis XIY. This king made Le Notre his Controller- General of Buildings and Director of Gardens ; and loaded him with presents and honors. His greatest production was the gardens of Versailles, which were, according to a contemporary, " the sum of every thing that has been done in gardening." He dazzled all Europe by the grand scale and sump- tuous cost of his designs ; and his stjie and manner were generally adopted. It does not appear, however, that his manner was greatly different from what had previously been displayed, in both France and Italy; his principal origi- nality residing in the great scale and the still greater expense of his plans. The result of these excesses caused a reaction, not less opposed to good taste. Towards the close of the last century, this reaction was at its height. Many noble terraces and other appropriate architectural features were destroyed ; and replaced by undulating surfaces and serpentine walks. The painted statuary of shepherds and shepherd- esses, with their flocks of marble sheep, scattered about the lawn ; trees trimmed into the forms of court ladies; the mul- titude of petty terraces, endless arch- ways, and countless steps, which led Walpole to laugh at people " walking up and down stairs in the open air" — were all swept away. A straight line was abhorred ; zig-zag walks were intro- duced, on all occasions; "so crooked, that you could put one foot on zig and the other on zag ;" winding paths circu- lated around buildings ; and the arrange- ment of grounds was the same, whether in close proximity to, or distant from the house, making no difference, as was said, " between the habitation of man and that of sheep." Any thing like an artistic connection, between the house and grounds, was totally overlooked : the former stood like a picture, without a frame, surrounded with nothing, but "Shaven lawns, that far around it creep, Iu one eternal, undulating sleep." All kinds of reform are ever liable to excess of innovation ; and that of placing a palace in the middle of a grass field is quite as ridiculous an extreme, as ever was perpetrated by the patrons of Pope's virtuoso gardener. Mankind are ever prone to step from one extreme to another. The serpentine was now to be considered the true line of beauty ; and it prevailed in every thing, whether in road, canal, walk or fence, until it came to be considered, as insipid and monotonous, as the straight line had previously appeared to be. Neither were criticisms wanting. In a poem entitled "The Landscape," the author complains of the "Prim gravel -walks, through which we winding go, In endless serpentines, that nothing show, Till, tired, I ask, ' Why this eternal round ?' And the pert guide replies, ' ' Tis pleasure-ground? " By way of retaliation, the author ot these rather severe lines was dubbed " a Grub street poet, whose only garden was the pot of mint in his window." This divergence from the exaggerated geometrical system was commenced in England : hence, it is frequently desig- nated as the " English" style. It, how- ever, gradually became fashionable in France, as well as in other European countries ; and almost every chateau, or villa, of importance had its "jardin Anglais." Even quite recently a writer remarks, " When I was last in Paris, I went to see a house, which was adver- tised, among other attractions, to pos- sess its 'jardin Anglais.' This interest- ing feature I found actually existing in a back court of some sixty feet hi depth ; but the smallness of the space had not caused any of the main features of the jardin Anglais to be omitted : there was the undulating lawn and serpentine walks, the belt of Scotch firs, the wind- in<>- rivulet with its rocky cascade, and the lake ; also, the foret des Sycamores, formed by groups of six or seven small and rather miserable specimens of that tree."