Lack of Water in Gardens: French Gardens

Of all the natural disadvantages of the site the lack of sufficient water was the greatest . . . `No matter what was done, the great fountains dried up . . . in spite of the oceans of reservoirs that cost so many millions to engineer in that sandy or boggy soil. . . . That same lack of water brought about the destruction of the French infantry, for peace reigned at that time and M. de Louvois conceived the notion of changing the course of the Eure between Chartres and Maintenon, so as to bring that river bodily to Versailles. Who could ever count the gold and men lost in an attempt which was continued for several years? They made a camp at the site of the works, and in the end it was forbidden under heavy penalties to mention the sick, or still worse, the dying, whom the hard labour and exhalations from the turned earth were taking off day by day. How many soldiers wasted long years in trying to recover their health? How many more never did recover? During the whole of that time, not only junior officers, but colonels, brigadiers, and even generals employed there, were forbidden to absent themselves a quarter of an hour, or miss so much as a quarter of an hour's duty on the site. The enterprise finally came to an end with the war of 1688. . . . Nothing remains but shapeless mounds to perpetuate the memory of a barbarous piece of folly." The guide-book says one should pause on the steps of the great parterre, and then, after suitable checks at les points de vue to admire the fountains in their complex relationships, one should proceed to the far end of le tapis vert as far as the great canal. At this point the view back to the palace is, of course, particularly commended. Thereafter the various groves on the left of the avenue have to be threaded in succession until the orangery is reached . . . after that you cross the parterre and work through the groves on the right. There is something very new about a garden that requires a guide-book for visitors, and, moreover, a guide-book written by a King, for Louis himself wrote it. For him Versailles was a principal part of the gigantic `show-off' of which his long reign consisted. He was proud of it and of the admiration it caused; its fame was his fame.