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a capital city. From fuch I would not banish those playful waters that refresh a fultry manfion in town, nor the neat trellis, which preferves its wooden verdure better than natural greens expofed to duft, Thofe treillages in the gardens at Paris, particularly on the Boulevard, have a and delightful effect.----They form light corridores, and tranfpicuous arbours through which the funbeams play and chequer the Shade, fet off the ftatues, vafes and flowers, that marry with their gaudy hotels, and fuit the galant and idle fociety who paint the walks between their parterres, and realize the fantastic scenes of Watteau and Durfé.

From what I have faid, it appears how naturally and infenfibly the idea of a kitchen-garden flid into that which has for fo many ages been peculiarly termed a garden, and by our ancestors in this country, diftinguished by the name of a pleasure-garden. A Square piece of ground was originally parted off in early ages for the use of the family----to exclude cattle and afcertain the property it was Separated from the fields by a hedge. As pride and defire of privacy increafed, the inclofure was dignified by walls; and in climes where fruits were not lavished by the ripening glow of nature and foil, fruit-trees were affifted and sheltered from surrounding winds by the like expedient; for the inundation of luxuries which have fwelled into general neceffities, have almost all taken their fource from the fimple fountain of reafon.

When

jardin d'une maifon dans une capitale. Je ne bannirois de ceux-là ni ces jets d'eau qui raffraîchiffent l'air étouffé d'une ville, ni ces jolis treillages dont la peinture verte se conserve mieux dans la pouffiére que la verdure naturelle. Ces treillages ont un coup d'œil agréable & gai dans les Jardins de Paris, & fpécialement au Boulevart : ils forment de légéres galleries & des berceaux à jour où les rayons du foleil jouent avec l'ombre, & qu'on pare de ftatues, de vafes & de fleurs qui s'accordent avec le faste des hôtels & qui conviennent aux oifives & galantes fociétés qu'on voit bigarrer en mille couleurs les allées du parterre & réaliser les tableaux imaginaires de Watteau & de Durfé.

On voit par tout ce que j'ai dit comment l'idée d'un Jardin potager a pour ainfi dire gliffé naturellement & infenfiblement jusqu'à ce qu'on a appelé proprement Jardin pendant plufieurs fiécles, & que nos ancêtres ont honoré dans ce pays-ci du nom de jardin de plaisance. Un morceau de terre quarré a été originairement divifé en compartimens pour l'usage d'une famille; enfuite, pour écarter le bétail & pour affurer la propriété on l'a séparé des champs par une haye. Quand l'orgueil & le goût exclufif de la propriété ont pris des forces, la haye a été honorablement changée en muraille, qui dans les climats où la chaleur naturelle du fol ne prodigue pas aux fruits la maturité, garantiffoit des vents les arbres fruitiers & leur fervoit d'abri; car cette inondation du luxe qui a fi fort enflé nos besoins a presque toute pris fa fource dans le réservoir de la fimple raison.

Quand

When the custom of making Square gardens inclofed with walls was thus established, to the conclufion of nature and profpect, pomp and folitude combined to call for Something that might enrich and enliven the infipid and unanimated partition. Fountains, first invented for ufe, which grandeur loves to difguife and throw out of the question, received embellishments from coftly marbles, and at last to contradict utility, toffed their waste of waters into air in Spouting co\lumns. Art, in the hands of rude man, had at first been made a fuccedaneum to nature; in the hands of oftentatious wealth, it became the means of oppofing nature; and the more it traversed the march of the latter, the more nobility thought its power was demonftrated. Canals measured by the line were introduced in lieu of maandring streams, and terrasses were boifted aloft in oppofition to the facile flopes that imperceptibly unite the valley to the hill. Balustrades defended thefe precipitate and dangerous elevations, and flights of Steps rejoined them to the fubjacent flat from which the terrafs bad deen dug. Vafes and Sculpture were added to thefe unneceffary balconies, and ftatues furnished the lifeless Spot with mimic reprefentations of the excluded fons of men. Thus difficulty

* It was not uncommon, after the circumadjacent country had been shut out, to endeavour to recover it by raising large mounts of earth to peep over the walls of the garden.

Quand l'ufage d'enclore de murs les Jardins fut ainfi établi à l'exclufion de la nature &* de la perspective, le goût du fafte & l'ennui de la folitude fe combinerent pour imaginer quelque chofe qui pût enrichir & vivifier une poffeffion infipide & inanimée. Les fontaines inventées dabord pour l'usage, mais que la grandeur se plaît à déguiser & même à rendre inutile, furent enrichies de marbres précieux; & pour contredire toute utilité furent forcées d'élancer dans les airs toute la masse de leurs eaux en colonnes jailliffantes. Dans les mains de l'homme fimple & fauvage, l'art n'étoit que le coopérateur de la nature; dans les mains de la richeffe fastueuse il devint un moyen de la combattre, & plus il en traversa la marche, plus nos feigneurs admirérent l'exercice de fon pouvoir. Des caneaux tirés au cordeau s'introduifirent à la place des ruiffeaux ferpentant librement; & des terraffes péniblement guindées s'élevérent au lieu des pentes faciles qui uniffent narurellement le vallon à la montagne. Une baluftrade fut pofée fur ces hautes fabriques pour en écarter le danger du précipice, & des rampes d'efcaliers rejoignirent les terraffes au terrein creusé pour les élever. A ces inutiles balcons on ajouta des vafes, de la fculpture; & des ftatues garnirent ce fite inanimé de figures grotesques fubftituées aux êtres vivans qu'on avoit exclus de ces riches déserts. Ainfi

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* Quand l'usage d'exclure les terreins adjacens fut introduit, il n'étoit pas rare qu'on cherchât à les recouvrer pour ainfi dire en élevant au dedans du jardin des hauteurs d'où l'œil pouvoit voir par deffus les murs de clôture.

difficulty and expence were the conflituent parts of those Sumptuous and selfish folitudes; and every improvement that was made, was but a step farther from nature. The tricks of water-works to wet the unwary, not to refresh the panting Spectator, and parterres embroidered in patterns like a petticoat, were but the childish endeavours of fashion and novelty to reconcile greatness to what it had furfeited on To crown these impotent difplays of falfe tafte, the Sheers were applied to the lovely wildness of form with which nature has diftinguished each various Species of tree and shrub. The venerable oak, the romantic beech, the useful elm, even the afpiring circuit of the lime, the regular round of the chefnut, and the almoft moulded orange-tree, were corrected by fuch fantastic admirers of fymmetry. The compass and Square were of more ufe in plantations than the nurseryman. The measured walk, the quincunx, and the etoile impofed their unfatisfying fameness on every royal and noble garden. Trees were beaded, and their fides pared away; many French groves feem green chefts fet upon poles. Seats of marble, arbours and fummer-houses, terminated every vifto; and fymmetry, even where the space was too large to permit its being remarked at one view, was fo effential, that, as Pope obferved,

each alley has a brother, And half the garden just reflects the other.

Knots

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