hose
charming grounds, performing concerts sometimes in the woods, and at
other times on the water, and at night in a room adjoining his hall of
company;[8] the venerable Malherbes, the undaunted defender of the
oppressed, who throughout his life lost no opportunity of drying up the
tears of the afflicted, and never caused one to flow; whose whole life
had been consecrated to the happiness of his fellow-creatures and the
dignity of his country, but whose spotless reputation could not save him
from the guillotine at his age of seventy-two;[9] Schabol; Latapie, who
translated Whately's Observations on Modern Gardening, to which he
added a discourse on the origin of the art, &c.; Watelet, who wrote
Essai sur les Jardins, and whose name has given rise to some most
charming lines in De Lille's poem, and whose biography is interestingly
drawn in the Biog. Univers.; Lezay de Marnesia, whose poems de la Nature
Champetre, 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; Francois
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
Encyclopaedia 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 forty-seven years over France: "Quoiqu'il ne sut pas ecriere
(says the Nouv. Diet. Hist.), il fit fleurer les sciences. Aussi grand
par ses conquetes, 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
conquerant et de cet legislateur remplit la terre. Tout fut uni par le
force de son genie." De Sismondi calls him "a brilliant star in that
dark firmament." Mr. Loudon, in p. 40 of his Encyclopaedia, says, that
"T