whose biography is interestingly drawn in the Biog. Univers.; Lezay de Marnesia, whose poems de la Nature Champêtre, and le Bonheur dans les Campagnes, have passed through many editions, and of whom pleasing mention is made in the above Biog. Univers.; M. de Fontaine, author of Le Verger; Masson de Blamont, the translator of Mason's Garden, and Whately's Observations; François Rosier; Bertholan, the friend of Franklin.

I am indebted, in a great measure, for the above list of French authors, to that immense body of diffuse and elaborate information, the Encyclopædia of Gardening, by Mr. Loudon.

Those who are more conversant with the literature of France, than my very limited researches have extended to, can, no doubt, easily enumerate many very distinguished persons of that country, many talented men, who though they may not have written on the subject of gardens, yet evinced an ardent attachment to them, and became their munificent patrons. Let us not then omit the name of Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, in one of whose Capitulaires are Directions concerning Gardens, and what plants are best to set in them. He died in 814, after reigning fortyseven years over France: " Quoiqu'il ne sût pas écriére (says the Nouv. Dict. Hist.), il fit fleurer les sciences. Aussi grand par ses conquêtes, que par l'amour des lettres, et en fut le protecteur et la restaurateur. Son palais fut l'asyle des sciences. Le nom

de ce conquérant et de cet législateur remplit la terre. Tout fut uni par le force de son génie." De Sismondi calls him "a brilliant star in that dark firmament.” Mr. Loudon, in p. 40 of his Encyclopædia, says, that "The Abbé Schmidt informs us (Mag. Encyc.) that this monarch, who had domains in every part of France, gave the greatest encouragement to the eradication of forests, and the substitution of orchards and vineyards. He was on terms of friendship with the Saracenic prince Haroun al Raschild, and by that means procured for France the best sorts of pulse, melons, peaches, figs, and other fruits."

Francis I. when he built his palace at Fontainbleau, introduced into its gardens, much of what he had seen in those of Italy, and when he compleated St. Germains, its style of grandeur may be guessed at from its rocks, cascades, terraces and subterraneous grots.

Henry IV.'s attachment to agriculture and to gardens, is well known. The magnificent improvements he made at St. Germains, and the attention he paid to his gardens at la Fleche, Vendome, and the Thuilleries, shew this. Indeed, his employing Claude Mollet, and Jean Robin, are sufficient proofs.*

* I cannot pass by the name of Henry, without the recollection of what an historian says of him: "L'Abbé Langlet du Fresnoy a publié cinquante-neuf lettres de a bon Roi, dans sa nouvelle edition du Journal de Henry III. on y remarque du feu de l'esprit, de l'imagination, et sur-tout cette éloquence du cœur, qui plait tout dans un monarque.-On l'exortoit á traiter avec rigueur quelques places

Louis XIV. magnificently rewarded La Quintinye, that original writer, who conducted the fine gardens of Tambourneau, and whose precepts Mons. de Voltaire tells us were followed by all Europe. The zeal of Louis for the decorations of gardens, met with an able assistant when he patronized Le Nôtre, to do justice to whose name, I can only refer my reader to the concise but rich review of the grand efforts of this singular genius, as they are noticed in p. 35 of Mr. Loudon's Encyclopædia, and which "dazzled and enchanted every class of observers."*

Madame de Sevigné's delight in gardens pervades

de la Ligue, qu'il avoit rédites par la force: La satisfaction qu'on tire de la vengeance ne dure qu'un moment (repondit ce prince généreuse) mais celle qu'on tire de la clemence est eternelle. Plus on connoitre Henri, plus on l'aimera, plus on l'admiriroet."

* The king, knowing his fine taste for sculpture and painting, sent him to Italy, and the Nouv. Dict. Hist. gives this anecdote: "La Pape instruit de son mérite, voulut le voir, et lui donna une assez longue audience, sur la fin de laquelle le Nôtre s'écria en s'adressant au Pape : J'ai vu les plus grands hommes du monde, Votre Sainteté, et le Roi mon maître. Il y a grande différence, dit le Pape; le Roi est un grand prince victorieux, je suis un pauvre prêtre serviteur des serviteurs de Dieu. Le Nôtre, charmé de cette réponse, oublia qui la lui faisoit, et frappant sur l'épaule du Pape lui répondit à son tour: Mon Révérend Pere, vous vous portez bien et vous enterrerez tout la Sacré College. Le Pape, qui entendoit le François, rit du pronostic. Le Nôtre, charmé de plus en plus de sa bonté, et de l'estime particuliere qu'il témoignoit pour le Roi, se jeta au cou du Pape et l'embrassa. C'étoit au reste sa coutume d'embrasser tous ceux qui publioient les louanges de Louis XIV., et il embrassoit le Roi lui-même, toutes les fois que ce prince revenoit de la campagne."

many of her letters: that of July 1677, paints the charms which one in Paris gave her: "I was invited in the kindest manner possible to sup at Gourville's with Mad. de Scomberg, Mad. de Frontenac, Mad. de Coulanges, the Duke, M. de la Rochefoucault, Barillon, Briole, Coulanges, Sevigné, in a garden of the hotel de Condé; there were water-works, bowers, terraces, six hautboys, six violins, and the most melodious flutes; a supper which seemed to be prepared by enchantment, an admirable bass-viol, and a resplendent moon, which witnessed all our pleasures." Of her own garden, formed by her own pure taste, M. de Coulanges thus speaks: "I have spent a most delightful fortnight here. It is impossible sufficiently to praise the gardens of the Rocks; they would have their beauties even at Versailles, which is saying every thing."

And that she delighted in what she well knew how to describe, is evident from her letter from Chaulnes: "This is a very handsome house, which carries with it an air of grandeur, though it is partly unfurnished, and the gardens neglected. There is scarcely any verdure to be seen, and not a nightingale to be heard; in short, it is still winter, on the seventeenth of April. But it is easy to imagine the beauties of these walks; every thing is regular and magnificent; a spacious parterre in front, bowling-greens opposite the wings, a large playing fountain in the parterre, two in the bowling-greens, and another at a distance in the middle of a field, which is well named the solitary; a fine country, beautiful apartments, and a pleasant prospect, though flat." She in another

letter from Chaulnes says; "I was walking alone the other day, in these beautiful alleys." And in a subsequent one she says: "It is a pity to be obliged to quit so beautiful and so charming a place." Her frequent mention in her letters of my pretty walks at the Rocks, sufficiently paints her delight in her own garden. In compliment to this lady, I cannot help applying to her the exact words which Petrarch applies to Laura: une haute intelligence, un cœur pure, qui a la sagesse de l'âge avancé, ait le brilliant de la belle jeunesse.

Few passed more happy hours in their garden at Baville, than the illustrious Lamoignon, of whom it was said, that "Son ame égaloit son génie; simple dans ses mœurs, austere dans sa conduite, il étoit le plus doux des hommes, quand la veuve et l'orphein étoient à ses pieds, Boileau, Racine, Bourdaloue, Rapin, composoit sa petite cour," and whom Rapin invokes, not only in his poem on gardens,

My flowers aspiring round your brows shall twine,
And in immortal wreaths, shall all their beauties join ;

but in his letters, preserved with those of Rabutin de Bussy, he paints in high terms the name of Lamoignon, and frequently dwells on his retreat at Baville. Mons. Rab. de Bussy, in a letter to Rapin, says: "Que Je vous trouve heureux d'avoir deux mois á passer à Baville, avec Mons. le presidant! Il est admirable à Paris; mais il est aimable à sa maison de campagne, et vous savez qu'on a plus de plaisir à