moss and by grottoes; while a
lake is appropriate to the dreamy style. There is even the fantastic
style, of which the most beautiful specimen might have been lately seen
in a garden at Wuertemberg--for there might have been met successively a
wild boar, a hermit, several sepulchres, and a barque detaching itself
from the shore of its own accord, in order to lead you into a boudoir
where water-spouts lave you when you are settling yourself down upon a
sofa.

Before this horizon of marvels, Bouvard and Pecuchet experienced a kind
of bedazzlement. The fantastic style appeared to them reserved for
princes. The temple to philosophy would be cumbersome. The votive
offering of the Madonna would have no signification, having regard to
the lack of assassins, and--so much the worse for the colonists and the
travellers--the American plants would cost too much. But the rocks were
possible, as well as the shattered trees, the immortelles, and the moss;
and in their enthusiasm for new ideas, after many experiments, with the
assistance of a single man-servant, and for a trifling sum, they made
for themselves a residence which had no analogy to it in the entire
department.

The elm hedge, open here and there, allowed the light of day to fall on
the thicket, which was full of winding paths in the fashion of a
labyrinth. They had conceived the idea of making in the espalier wall an
archway, through which the prospect could be seen. As the arch could not
remain suspended, the result was an enormous breach and a fall of
wreckage to the ground.

They had sacrificed the asparagus in order to build on the spot an
Etruscan tomb, that is to say, a quadrilateral figure in dark plaster,
six feet in height, and looking like a dog-hole. Four little pine trees
at the corners flanked the monument, which was to be surmounted by an
urn and enriched by an inscription.

In the other part of the kitchen garden, a kind of Rialto projected over
a basin, presenting on its margin encrusted shells of mussels. The soil
drank up the water--no matter! they would contrive a glass bottom which
would keep it back.

The hut had been transformed into a rustic summer-house with the aid of
coloured glass.

At the top of the hillock, six trees, cut square, supported a tin
head-piece with the edges turned up, and the whole was meant to signify
a Chinese pagoda.

They had gone to the banks of the Orne to select granite, and had broken
it, marked the pieces with