File:Versailles and the court under Louis XIV (1905) (14579731367).jpg

Identifier: versaillescourtu00farm (find matches)
Title: Versailles and the court under Louis XIV
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Farmer, James Eugene, 1867-1915
Subjects: Versailles (France) -- Description France -- Court and courtiers
Publisher: New York, The Century co.
Contributing Library: Wellesley College Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Wellesley College Library

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eauty appear before you, stretching to the west. In the fore-ground is the vast and splendid parterre of Latona, with itsfountains, its flowers, and its statues; beyond it the RoyalAllee, with its closely cut green carpet, and its long lines ofsilent statues, banked by the heavy foliage of the adjoininggroves, slopes gently to the great basin in the distance whereApollo sits enthroned in his chariot; behind Apollo lie theplacid waters of the grand canal. THE PARTERRE OF LATONA This parterre contains three fountains. The principal one,the fountain of Latona, existed in the time of Louis XIII,though not in its present form. Latona, having at her feether children, Apollo and Diana, implores Jupiter to punishthe peasants who have insulted her, and the god changesthem to frogs. These gilded frogs throw more than fiftyjets of water which cross above and beside the figure ofLatona, producing a beautiful effect. All the sculptures ofthis fountain are the work of the brothers Marsy. The two 88
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The Terrace, the Fountains and Bosquets smaller fountains, called the basins of the Lizards, also thework of Marsy, are decorated with figures in gilded lead,and placed in ornamental grass-plots, bordered by beds offlowers. Passing down the allee of Latona, we come at the end ofthe parterre to the large half-moon which precedes the RoyalAllee or Tapis Vert. The Grand Monarch had written anitinerary1 which the officers of his Household followed inconducting visitors through the gardens, and at this pointthe kings guests were stopped that they might admire theview. Therefore let us pause for a moment at the royalview-point, for though much has been changed in other parts,we still see to-day from this spot the gardens as Louis him-self saw them. To the east, beyond the brilliant parterreof Latona, with its fountains, its flowers, and its orange-trees, rise the vine-covered walls of the terraces, with theirspacious flights of steps and their vividly green clipped yews.Above the great stai

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