Book I. 



GARDENING IN RUSSIA. 



56 



251. Planting is little wanted in Siveden, for seedling Scotch pines, spruce firs, and 

 birch, rise up in abundance wherever old ones have been cut down. Enclosures in Swe- 

 den, as in Switzerland, are most frequently made of stone or of wood. Trees are planted 

 along the roads in several places, and especially near Stockholm. The lime, the birch, 

 and the ash, or trembling poplar, are the species used. 



Sect. VII. Of the Rise, Progress, and 'present State of Gardening in Russia. 



252. The history of gardening in Russia is very different from that of any of those 

 countries which have yet come under review. Peter the Great sought, by one giant stride, 

 to raise the character of his nation to a level with that of other countries ; and, by extra- 

 ordinary efforts, introduced excessive refinement amidst excessive barbarism ; asembled 

 magnificent piles of architecture in a marsh, and created the most sumptuous palaces and 

 extensive parks and gardens, in the bleak pine and birch forests which surrounded it. As 

 a man of Cronstadt rhymes, 



" Built a city in a bog, 



And made a Christian of a hog." 



Nothing can be more extraordinary in the way of gardening, than these well-known 

 facts, that a century ago there was scarcely such a thing, in any part of Russia, as a 

 garden ; and, for the last fifty years, there have been more pine-apples grown in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Petersburg than in all the other countries of the continent put together. 



Subsect. 1. Russian Gardening, as an Art cf Design and Taste. 



253. Russian gardening, as an art of design, began, like every other art, with Peter 

 the Great. This emperor's first effort was made in 1714, when the garden of the sum- 

 mer-palace, on the banks of the Neva, in Petersburg, was laid out in the Dutch taste. 

 But the grandest and most superb garden, in the geometric manner, is that which he con- 

 structed soon afterwards, about thirty wersts from the city, on the shores of the gulf. 

 This imperial residence, as far as respects the gardens, has been justly called the Versailles 

 of Russia; and the Prince de Ligne, an excellent judge, gives the preference to its water- 

 works. The whole was originally designed and laid out by Le Blond, a pupil of Le Notre, 

 and for some time court architect of St. Petersburg. This, with the other suburban 

 palaces and gardens, have been minutely described by Georgi, and more generally by 

 Storch, from whom we select the following outline : — 



254. Peter/toff, in respect to situation, is perhaps unrivalled. About five hundred fathoms from the sea- 

 shore this region has a second cliff, almost perpendicular, near twelve fathoms high. Bordering on this 

 precipice stands the palace, thereby acquiring a certain peculiar prospect over the gardens and the gulf, to 

 the shores of Carelia and St. Petersburg, and to Cronstadt. It was built in the reign of Peter the Great, 

 by the architect Le Blond, but has received, under the succeeding monarchs, such a variety of improve- 

 ments, that it has become a sort of specimen of the several tastes that prevailed in each of these ajras, the 

 influence whereof is visible in the numerous architectural ornaments, which are all highly gilt. The inside is 

 correspondent with the destination of this palace ; throughout are perceptible the remains of antiquated 

 splendor, to which is contrasted the better taste of modern times. The gardens are more interesting by 

 their peculiar beauties. The upper parts of them, before the land-side of the palace, are disposed into 

 walks, plantations, and parterres, which acquire additional elegance by a large basin and canal, plentifully 

 furnished with fountains of various designs and forms. The declivity before the back-front of the palace 

 towards the sea has two magnificent cascades, rolling their streams over the terraces into large basins, and 

 beneath which vast sheets of water, we walk as under a vault, without receiving wet, into a beautiful grotto. 

 The whole space in front of this declivity, down to the sea-shore, is one large stately garden in the old- 

 fashioned style, and famous for its jets-d'eau, and artificial water- works. Some of them throw up columns of 

 water, a foot and a half in diameter, to a height of two and a half or three fathoms. A pellucid canal, lined 

 with stone, ten fathoms wide, running from the centre of the palace-facade into the gulph of Finland, divides 

 these gardens in two. In a solitary wood stands the summer-he use, called Monplaisir, which among other 

 things is remarkable for its elegant kitchen, wherein the Empress Elizabeth occasionally amused herself 

 in dressing her own dinner. In another portion of the gardens, close to the shore of the gulf, stands a 

 neat wooden building, formerly a favorite retreat of Peter the Great, as he could here have a view of 



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