THE ENGLISH LANDSCAPE SCHOOL 



309 



No important gardens were laid out in Russia before the time of Peter 

 the Great, whose first effort was made in 1714, when the garden of the summer 

 Palace on the banks of the Neva was laid out in the Dutch style, but, dis- 

 satisfied with this first palace, he soon after laid out Peterhof, which was 

 designed by Le Notre's pupil Le Blond. The garden of Tsarkoie Selo (Im- 

 perial spot) was laid out by Catherine II about 1768. Loudon says that 

 her own architect and gardener, being unable to satisfy her orders " to 

 follow Nature," she sent to England for a landscape gardener in the 

 person of John Bush of Hackney. In 1772 he begun his work at Pulkora 

 with winding shady walks and fine lawns. He was then transferred to 

 Tsarkoie Selo, where 

 he gave rein to all 

 the absurd fancies of 

 the period. One part 

 of the garden, writes 

 a contemporary, has 

 been laid out in the 

 regular lines of the 

 best traditions of Le 

 Notre, the other in 

 the style of the Eng- 

 lish school, where 

 every means has been 

 employed to impart 

 a picturesque air. 



Although the soil is unfavourable, woods have been planted, traversed by 

 winding walks and rivulets, and the visitor will find all the usual concomit- 

 ants of the English garden. The writer concludes his catalogue of the tombs 

 and monuments by saying that the Olympians must indeed be hard to please 

 if they are dissatisfied with the attention accorded them here. 



Near St. Petersburg were also the park of Oranienbaum and the palace 

 of Paulowsky. This was begun in 1780 from a design said to have been 

 furnished by " Capability " Brown. Prince Potemkin's extravagant excesses 

 in gardening were situated in different parts of Russia ; the largest were in the 

 Ukraine, but the most celebrated were those of the Palace of Taurida. He 

 employed an Englishman, Gould, who was one of Brown's most able pupils. 



A GARDEN HOUSE FROM LABORDE. 



