On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening,: with Biographical Notices of Them, 2nd edition, with considerable additionsFelton, Samuel
History
On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening,: with Biographical Notices of Them, 2nd edition, with considerable additions
Felton, Samuel
Gardening -- Bibliography; Horticulturists -- England
[11] The king, knowing his fine taste for sculpture and painting, sent
him to Italy, and the Nouv. Dict. Hist. gives this anecdote: "La Pape
instruit de son mérite, voulut le voir, et lui donna une assez longue
audience, sur la fin de laquelle le Nôtre s'écria en s'adressant au
Pape: J'ai vu les plus grands hommes du monde, Votre Sainteté, et le Roi
mon maître. Il y a grande différence, dit le Pape; le Roi est un grand
prince victorieux, je suis un pauvre prêtre serviteur des serviteurs de
Dieu. Le Nôtre, charmé de cette réponse, oublia qui la lui faisoit, et
frappant sur l'épaule du Pape lui répondit à son tour: Mon Révérend
Pere, vous vous portez bien et vous enterrerez tout la Sacré College. Le
Pape, qui entendoit le François, rit du pronostic. Le Nôtre, charmé de
plus en plus de sa bonté, et de l'estime particuliere qu'il témoignoit
pour le Roi, se jeta au cou du Pape et l'embrassa. C'étoit au reste sa
coutume d'embrasser tous ceux qui publioient les louanges de Louis XIV.,
et il embrassoit le Roi lui-même, toutes les fois que ce prince revenoit
de la campagne."
[12] I will conclude by mentioning a justly celebrated man, who, it
seems was not over fond of his garden, though warmly attached both to
Boileau, and to Mad. de Sevigné,--I mean that most eloquent preacher
Bossuet, of whom a biographer, after stating that he was so absorbed in
the study of the ancient fathers of the church, "qu'il ne se permettoit
que des délassemens fort courts. Il ne se promênoit que rarement même
dans son jardin. Son jardinier lui dit un jour: _Si je plantois des
Saint Augustins, et des Saint Chrysostomes, vous les viendriez voir;
mais pour vos arbres, vous ne vous en souciez guere_."
[13] Mr. Worlidge, who wrote during part of the reigns of Charles II.
and James II. judiciously observes, that "the glory of the French
palaces, often represented to our English eyes in sculpture, are adorned
_with their beauteous gardens before them_; which wanting, they would
seem without lustre or grandeur."
[14] He was fined £30,000 for having taken a favourite of the king's, in
the very presence chamber, by the nose, for having insulted him, and
afterwards dragging him out of the room.
[15] It was to this nobleman, that Addison addressed his elegant and
sublime epistle, after he had surveyed with the eyes and genius of a
classical poet, the monuments and heroic deeds of ancient Rome.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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