A description of the King's royal palace and gardens at Loo together with A short account of Holland in which there are some observations relating to their diseases / by Walter Harris ...

CHAP. V

Of the Queen's Garden, and another Private Gar∣den, or Labyrinth beyond it, Eastward.

ON the East-side of the Palace, there is a Garden that is called the Queen's Garden, being under the Apartments appointed for her Majesty, as the King's Garden before described was on the King's side. Both of them are of the same dimensions.

This garden is divided into two Parts; whereof the one, being next to the Great Garden, consists of three Parterres of Flowers, bordered with Box, and having Pyramidal Juniper Trees in divers parts of them. The Parterres are on all sides encompassed with Gravel-walks; and on the Walls here are divers fort of Fruit-trees, Grapes, &c. besides Paintings of Flo∣ras, &c. in some places.

In the middle of the Parterres is a Fountain of Arion gilded, playing on a Lute, and riding on a gilded Dol∣phin, out of whose Nostrils there do rise two Spouts five of six foot high. The Basin is bordered with white Marble, thirteen Inches broad. On the border are placed at convenient distances eight gilded Sea-Horses, every one making a Jette out of each Nostril. The Ba∣sin is paved with a square Stone, about a foot broad. On both sides of this Fountain are Seats painted green, next to the Parterres.

The other Part of this Garden consists of divers Gravel-walks within Arbors, the whole length and breadth of it, and has five Fountains in the middle of all the Arbors. Into the middle of the first Arbor-walk

there is an ascent of four Steps, besides a like ascent of Steps at both ends of the same Walk, without the Arbors; or between them and the Garden Walls. Between those three pair of Steps, there is a green Slope the height of the Steps, and at the top of the Slope there are long Beds of Flowers, with Juniper Trees intermixed. And at the corners of all the Steps there are Flowerpots.

The first Arbor-walk that runs from West to East, and is next to the Garden now described, hath eight open spaces or Windows, towards the Parterres, be∣sides eight other such Windows on the inside, whereas the other three Sides or Arbor-walks have their Win∣dows only on the inside of the Walk. These Windows and five foot and a half long, and near upon the same height; and they are square at bottom, and convex at top. The four long Arbor-walks, on the four sides of this Part of the Queen's Garden, are each above threescore Paces long, and twelve foot and a half wide, At the four corners, or ends of these Walks, there is placed a Cupid above the Seat, and from those Seats we can see through Windows cut in the inward Arbors, diametrically cross this Part of the Garden, three of the five Fountains, that are presently to be described.

Besides the four Gravel-walks within the Arbors, and three other Gravel-walks without the Arbors, next to the Garden-wall; there are other Walks with∣in Arbors that are not gravelled, the which do wind and turn in uniform Figures from the middle of one of the side Arbor-walks to the middle of another. And between these there are Parterres with Fountains in them.

In the middle of all the Arbors there is a Fountain with a large gilded Triton, sitting on a Rock of Stones

and Shells, and blowing through a gilded Horn a Spout about eight foot high. The Basin is border'd with rough Rockwork. It is paved with Pebbles, and white Mar∣ble set among them, cut in oval, or Diamond forms. From the middle of the four long Arbor-walks unto this Fountain there are four direct Walks, and between these Walks there are four little Gardens, or Parterres, separated from the said Gravel-walks by Hedges of Dutch Elm, about four foot high.

In the middle of each of these four little Gardens, there is a distinct Fountain, and in each of the Foun∣tains there is place a gilded Triton, sitting on a gild∣ed Sea-Horse, or an a Sea-Goat, all upon Rockwork, like that in the middle Fountain; and the Basins of these are paved like the former. But these four Tritons and Basins are less in proportion than that in the mid∣dle Fountain. One of these four Tritons holds a Cup in his Right hand, through which there rises a Jette six of seven foot. The second holds a Trident in his hand, and through the three Spikes of the Trident are made three Dards or Spouts. The third holds a Fish, and makes a Spout through the Mouth of the Fish. And the fourth blows another through a twined Trum∣pet. All the Spouts in these four Fountains do rise much about the same height. And besides these, the Sea-horses on which the four Trions do ride, do all make a little sheet of water from their Tongues.

About the first and largest of these five Tritons, pla∣ced in the middle of those other four Fountains, and the Arbors, there are eight semicircular Seats, covered behind and over head Arbor-like; the Seats and Prop∣work, and also the Prop-work of all the Arbors being painted green. Every one of these Seats is above eight foot wide, and ten foot high. And between the

four Gravel-walks, which come to this Fountain from the middle of the four Side-Arbor walks, there are two of these eight Seats, as also between every two Seats there is an entrance five foot wide into the Par∣torres of one of the four lesser Fountains.

All along these Gravel-walks, and round the mid∣dle Fountain, there are placed Orange-trees, and Lem∣mon Trees in portable Wooden Frames, and Flower-pots about them.

In a corner of the Queen's Garden, next to the Ter∣ras-walk of the Great Garden, and under one corner of the Palace, there is a fine Grotto, consisting of the Roots of Trees, Flints, and Shells, disposed in a rough Grotesco manner, and in one corner of this Grotto there is a Aviary.

The Room for the Grotto is paved with Black and White Marble, there being two Fountains in it over∣against one another, and they are raised Arch-wise from the bottom to the top of the Room, the border round the Fountains being raised above a foot from the floor, in order to hinder the water from wetting the Room. The sides are embellished with divers sorts of Shells, and all parts of the Windows beautisied with the same, in divers Figures. There are three Gates or Passages into this Room, one from the Queen's Gar∣den, another from the Great Garden, under the Terras-walk, the third goes into a little Room, where a Couch is placed for Repose, and thence we go into another Room adorned all over with abundance of Porcelaine, or China.

The Aviary is exposed to the open Air, but incom∣passed with a small Grate, to confine the Birds; and there is a place in the corner of the Grotto for the Birds to retreat into, from the Rain, or Weather.

On the Eastside of the Queen's Garden, there is ano∣ther Garden for retirement, with Walks, and Hedges of Witch-Elm, about eight foot high; into which we do pass out of the former through a Gate of wrought Iron, painted Blew and Gilt. Turning in it North∣wards in the second Walk, we come to a Noble Foun∣tain, unto which we descend by six Stops; but in the middle of these Steps there is a small fall of water in six descents from a Fountain at the top of the Step; and from thence the water runs in a small channel cross the Walk that encompasses the Fountain which I am going to describe.

This Fountain is oblong, or of an Oval figure; its diameter is in length twenty Paces, and it is about ten Paces wide. In the middle of this Basin there is a round Rock, of rough Stones, Shells, and Forge∣cinders, about a yard above the water. Out of this Rockwork there springs a Jette about five yards high, from the middle of it; and from the other parts round about this Rock there do rise abundance of other Spouts. This Fountain is bordered with green Turf, on the Slope of which Border there are placed at due distances six collopt Shells of wrought Stone. Into all these Shells there is a fall of water from the mouth of a wrought Head, joined to the Shell in one and the same Stone; and from four parts of each Shell the wa∣ter falls into the Basin of the Fountain, which is not paved at all, the Bottom being only of Earth, as the Border of it and the Slope were of Turf.

Round this Fountain, next to the Hedge, and di∣rectly behind the foresaid six Shells, there are six Sta∣tues in Stone, or so many little Cupids standing upon high Pedestals of wrought Stone; and at the bottom of each Pedestal there is a fall of water into a small

square Stone-basin, from whence the water runs un∣der the Walk into one of the Heads and Shells that were before mentioned to be placed on the Slope below the Border. The first of these Cupids is drinking out of a Stone-cup held in one hand, and has a bunch of Grapes in the other. The second holds a Tulip in his Right hand. The third is reading in a Book, through a pair of Spectacles, held near the Book. The fourth has a Play-thing in his hand. The fifth has a Snake, which he squeezes hard in his Arms. And the sixth leans upon a Spade. Also round about this Fountain there are placed fifty Orange-trees in Frames.

Going still Northwards about thirty Paces from this Fountain, we come at the end of this Walk to a Statue of Venus at length, a little stooping, and holding Cu∣pid by both hands. The Venus is placed on a Stone Pedestal, and out of a wrought Head at the bottom of the Pedestal, there is a fall of water into a small Stone-basin.

A little Eastward of this Statue of Venus, there is another Fountain in a square Stone-basin. In the middle of it there is a small fall of water from a round Stone-basin, whence the water does fall equally all round in one sheet. And besides another Cascade that is here made out of a Head into a large Basin, there are five other falls of water from out of the Walls of this Foun∣tain, each of them about a foot in breadth.