3 o8 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINN^US 



The palace grounds are laid out variously in the Old 

 French, Dutch, or English style. From the terrace a 

 flight of steps leads to a garden which reminds one of 

 France ornamented with vases and groups in bronze 

 and marble of considerable merit, with fountains, ponds, 

 and water-avenues where swans live and breed. There 

 is a Theatre de Verdure, a unique and charming struc- 

 ture, built by Gustavus III., with stage and room of 

 clipped trees and turf, where that sovereign loved to 

 act French plays. There is also a range of complicated 

 walks ; a Swiss cottage ; a Chinese pagoda ; Flora's hill, 

 with a statue of the goddess ; the Kina Slott, or Chinese 

 castle, a sort of plaything built in 1752, by King 

 Adolf Frideric, and presented by him to his queen, 

 Louisa Ulrica, on her birthday a festival which Lin- 

 nasus of course attended. ' This building is filled with 

 Chinese curiosities. And near the so-called Canton 

 village, composed of a number of villas, was a fac- 

 tory hamlet, where the manufacture of steel and iron 

 ware was carried on, conducted by the king himself, 

 probably then the most skilled locksmith and turner in 

 Sweden. 



1 Ascending wide steps leading to the palace, one 

 enters a hall, recognised at a glance by its decorations 

 as the work of Nicodemus Tessin. A noble staircase 

 leads to the rooms above, full of paintings, tapestry, 

 collections of china, and portraits of King Adolf 

 Frideric and his beautiful blue-eyed wife.' * 

 1 Du Chaillu. 



