233. The house of Bel Respiro (fig. 61.) is situated close to the Barriere de l'Etoile, which forms the entrance to the grand avenue of the Champs Elysees, and is one of the handsomest of its kind in Paris; but the formation of a conspicuous wooden bridge (fig. 59.) in a situation without water greatly injures the expression of the whole garden. The object is a very laudable one, that of joining two high banks by a walk; but that ought to have been done by an inconspicuous rustic stone arch, concealed by creepers and wood. The groups of trees shown in this landscape are entirely artificial; and though the individuals are large, they were all planted in the spring of 1828. The building on the left of the picture is over the well and its machinery; the windmill, on the right, is beyond the boundary of the garden. This property was purchased, the house built, and the grounds laid out, entirely as a mercantile speculation, by a Parisian attorney.
