the
moyen-age, of the epoch of the Crusades, for example, did not bear the
least resemblance to the more ample _parterres_ of the Renaissance.
Civilization was making great progress, and it was necessary that the
gardens should be in keeping with a less restrained, more luxurious
method of life.

If the gardens of the Renaissance marked a progress over the _preaux_
and _jardinets_ of mediaevalism, those of Le Notre were a blossoming
forth of the Renaissance seed. Regretfully, one cannot say as much for
the garden plots of the eighteenth century, and it was only with the
mid-nineteenth century that the general outlines took on a real charm
and attractiveness again, and this was only achieved by going back to
original principles.

The first gardens were the _vergers_ and _preaux_, little checker-board
squares of a painful primitiveness as compared with later standards.
These squares, or _carreaux_, were often laid out in foliage and
blossoming plants as suggestive as possible of their being made of
carpeting or marble. When these miniature enclosures came to be
surrounded with trellises and walls the Renaissance in garden-making may
be considered as having been in full sway.

Under Louis XIV a certain affluence was noticeable in garden plots, and
with Louis XV an even more notable symmetry was apparent in the
disposition of the general outlines. By this time, the garden in France
had become a frame which set off the architectural charms of the
dwelling rather than remaining a mere accessory, but it was only with
the replacing of the castle-fortress by the more domesticated chateau
that a really generous garden space became a definite attribute of a
great house.

The first gardens surrounding the French chateaux were developments, or
adaptations, of Italian gardens, such as were designed across the Alps
by Mercogliano, during the feudal period.

Later, and during the time of the Crusades, the garden question hardly
entered into French life. Gardens, like all other luxuries, were given
little thought when the graver questions of peace and security were to
be considered, and, for this reason, there is little or nothing to say
of French gardens previous to the twelfth century.

An important species of the gardens of the moyen-age was that which was
found as an adjunct to the great monastic institutions, the _preaux_,
which were usually surrounded by the cloister colonnade. One of the most
important of these, of which