FLOATING GARDENS. 43 



grass, so that a stranger is plunged in over head and 

 ears while he thinks he is setting his foot upon the 

 turf. In the ducal gardens at Saxe-Gotha is a ruined 

 castle, which was built complete, and then ruined 

 expres by a few sharp rounds of artillery ! Stanislaus, 

 in the grounds of Lazienki, had a broad walk flanked 

 by pedestals upon which living figures, dressed or 

 undressed " after the manner of the antients," were 

 placed on great occasions. The floating gardens, or 

 Chinampas, of Mexico, are mentioned both by 

 Clavigero and Humboldt. They are formed on 

 wicker-work, and when a proprietor wishes for a 

 little change, or to rid himself of a troublesome 

 neighbour, he has only to set his paddles at work, or 

 lug out his towing-rope, and betake himself to some 

 more agreeable part of the lake. We wonder that 

 the barbaric magnificence which piled up mimic 

 pyramids, and Chinese watch-towers, and mock 

 Stonehenges, never bethought itself of imitating 

 these poetical Chinampas. It was one of Napoleon's 

 bubble* schemes to cover in the gardens of the 

 Tuileries with glass those gardens which were 

 turned into potato-ground during the Ee volution, 

 though the agent funnily complains that the Direc- 

 tory never paid him for the sets ! One of the most 

 successful pieces of magnificent gardening is the new 

 conservatory at Chatsworth, with a carriage-drive 

 through the centre, infinitely more perfect, though 

 we suppose not so extensive as the covered winter* 

 garden at Potemkin's palace of Taurida, near St. 



* [A bubble, however, since crystallized in Hyde Park, 1851.] 



