An Improvement of the Labyrinth at Versailes

The English gardener and author Batty Langley designed gardens in which the regular structures of the classical French style were overlaid with irregular lines. This drawing shows a suggested improvement to the labyrinth in the park at Versailles palace. However, Langley's attempt to depart from the usual lines and shapes and to make an artificial lack of order a design concept in the name of "improvement" did not convince his contemporaries and was viewed as unnatural.

An Improvement of the Labyrinth at Versailes, 1728; image source: Langley, Batty: New Principles of Gardening, London 1728, figure VIII, http://archive.org/stream/mobot31753000819141#page/n240/mode/1up.