560. During the reign of Charles II. (1660 to 1685) landscape-gardening received a great impulse. This monarch, we are informed by Daines Barrington, sent for Perault and Le Notre: the former declined coming to England, but the latter planted Greenwich and St. James's Parks. Charles planted the semicircle of Hampton Court; the beginning, as Switzer informs us, of a grand design never completed. Lord Capel and the Earl of Essex are mentioned by Switzer as eminent encouragers of gardening during this reign. The latter sent his gardener, Rose, to study the much celebrated beauties of Versailles; and on his return he was appointed royal gardener.
