All
these things were finished with expedition, that here their Majesties
might repose while they saw the main building go forward. While this was
doing, the gardens were laid out, the plan of them devised by the king
himself, and especially the amendments and alterations were made by the
king or the queen's particular special command, or by both, for their
Majesties agreed so well in their fancy, and had both so good judgment in
the just proportions of things, which are the principal beauties of a
garden, that it may be said they both ordered everything that was done.

Here the fine parcel of limes which form the semicircle on the south
front of the house by the iron gates, looking into the park, were by the
dexterous hand of the head gardener removed, after some of them had been
almost thirty years planted in other places, though not far off. I know
the King of France in the decoration of the gardens of Versailles had
oaks removed, which by their dimensions must have been above an hundred
years old, and yet were taken up with so much art, and by the strength of
such engines, by which such a monstrous quantity of earth was raised with
them, that the trees could not feel their remove--that is to say, their
growth was not at all hindered. This, I confess, makes the wonder much
the less in those trees at Hampton Court gardens; but the performance was
not the less difficult or nice, however, in these, and they thrive
perfectly well.

While the gardens were thus laid out, the king also directed the laying
the pipes for the fountains and _jet-d'eaux_, and particularly the
dimensions of them, and what quantity of water they should cast up, and
increased the number of them after the first design.

The ground on the side of the other front has received some alterations
since the taking down the Water Galley; but not that part immediately
next the lodgings. The orange-trees and fine Dutch bays are placed
within the arches of the building under the first floor; so that the
lower part of the house was all one as a greenhouse for sometime. Here
stand advanced, on two pedestals of stone, two marble vases or flower-
pots of most exquisite workmanship--the one done by an Englishman, and
the other by a German. It is hard to say which is the best performance,
though the doing of it was a kind of trial of skill between them; but it
gives us room, without any partiality, to say they were both masters of
their art.

The _parterr