But Thomas Earle of Pembroke has the
vertues and good parts of his ancestors concentred in him; which his
lordship hath not been wanting to cultivate and improve by study and
travell; which make his titles shine more bright. He is an honour to
the peerage, and a glory and a blessing to his country: but his reall
worth best speakes him, and it praises him in the gates.
PART II. - CHAPTER IV.
OF GARDENS: - LAVINGTON GARDEN, CHELSEY GARDEN.
[THE stately gardens of the seventeenth century were less remarkable
for the cultivation of useful or ornamental plants than for the formal
arrangement of their walks, arbours, parterres, and hedges. Amongst
the various decorations introduced were jets d'eau, or fountains,
artificial cascades, columns, statues, grottoes, rock-work, mazes or
labyrinths, terraces communicating with each other by flights of
steps, and similar puerilities. This style of gardening was introduced
from France; where the celebrated Le Notre had displayed his skill in
laying out the gardens of the palace of Versailles; the most important
specimens of their class. The same person was afterwards employed by
several of the English nobility.
The gardens at Wilton, described in the last chapter, were completely
in the style referred to. Solomon de Caus, to whom they are attributed
by Aubrey, is supposed by Mr. Loudon, in his valuable "Encyclopaedia of
Gardening", to have been the inventor of greenhouses.
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