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Symmetry of Garden: The Garden of EuphuesThe axis vista was still usually there, but it now commonly took the form of an avenue into the park; the garden proper no longer followed this line, but spread, by no means symmetrically, to either flank. Furthermore, the highly ornate part of the garden, even in the most splendid establishment, steadily became smaller, in spite of the increased cheapness of the services of London and Wise and their successors. This diminution in size was largely due to the decreasing popularity of the parterre de broderie. Now, if you remove from the French garden its symmetry, its strong axial development, and its embroidered parterres, what have you left that is French but its size and an attitude of mind? And in England even the attitude of mind was lacking. The reason for the failure of the French garden to be at home in England is clear. The outrageously arrogant stage setting of Versailles called for a star performer and a splendid supporting cast, but the nobility of Anne and George I were not tethered as the courtiers of Louis had been to an absolute monarch who wanted company. The pro-Dutch court of William of Orange had taught them to spend more time on their own estates. Such magnates as the English Dukes of Beaufort and Devonshire were enormously wealthy, but not enormously egotistical. There was very little political virtue in ostentatious display rather the reverse. It was not a matter of parsimony. There was no need for them to be restricted in the use of land as the magnates of Holland and Austria were, but an enormously elongated garden did not commend itself to an owner who liked to walk about his grounds; the most confirmed pedestrian prefers not to see at one glance his stint laid out before him. There was, however, no reason why the English garden should not become wider so wider it became. A wide garden disperses its impressiveness; a long one concentrates it. The English magnate was too sure of his position to need to secure it with over much pomp. He had not the memory of the Fronde behind him as Louis had. During the reign of Queen Anne nothing particularly original was achieved in design, but the craft of gardening made great strides and men learned to understand better the materials with which they had to work. |
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