se, Villers-Cotterets and Fontainebleau.
These are rather parks, like the "home-parks," so called, in England,
which, while adjuncts to the dwellings, are complete in themselves and
are possessed of a separate identity, or reason for being. Chiefly
these, and indeed most French gardens of the same epoch, differ greatly
from contemporary works in Italy in that the latter were often built and
terraced up and down the hillsides, whereas the French garden was laid
out, in the majority of instances, on the level, though each made use of
interpolated architectural accessories such as balustrades, statuary,
fountains, etc.

Mollet was one of the most famous gardeners of the time of Louis XIV. He
was the gardener of the Duc d'Aumale, who built the gardens of the
Chateau d'Anet while it was occupied by Diane de Poitiers, and for their
time they were considered the most celebrated in France for their upkeep
and the profusion and variety of their flowers. This was the highest
development of the French garden up to this time.

It is possible that this Claude Mollet was the creator of the
_parterres_ and _broderies_ so largely used in his time, and after.
Mollet's formula was derived chiefly from flower and plant forms,
resembling in design oriental embroideries. He made equal use of the
labyrinth and the sunken garden. His idea was to develop the simple
_parquet_ into the elaborate _parterre_. He began his career under Henri
III and ultimately became the gardener of Henri IV. His elaborate work
"Theatre des Plans et Jardinage" was written towards 1610-1612, but was
only published a half a century later. It was only in the sixteenth
century that gardens in Paris were planned and developed on a scale
which was the equal of many which had previously been designed in the
provinces.

[Illustration: PLAN of SUNKEN GARDEN (_JARDIN CREUX_)]

The chief names in French gardening--before the days of Le Notre--were
those of the two Mollets, the brothers Boyceau, de la Barauderie and
Jacques de Menours, and all successively held the post of Superintendent
of the Garden of the King.

In these royal gardens there was always a distinctly notable feature,
the _grand roiales_, the principal avenues, or alleys, which were here
found on a more ambitious scale than in any of the private gardens of
the nobility. The central avenue was always of the most generous
proportions, the nomenclature coming from royal--the _grand roial_ being
the equivalen