' 



PRINCE DE LIGNE 201 



scaffolding, no trellises, paintings, hoops : let the branches at 

 their own will try to find one another. 



I see no other rule for bridges, than not to make two alike. 

 We can give ourselves up to all the extravagances of our imagina- 

 tion. Happily architecture did not take possession of these at the 

 time it usurped gardens ; if however, a highly decorated garden 

 scene neighbour to some august temple, required an elaborate 

 bridge, without copying that of Czarskozelo 1 or Wilton, a colonnade 

 may be permitted. With that exception, the more fantastic they 

 are, the more pleasure they will give : let them be high enough not 

 to impede navigation, but not arched enough to cause one to slip 

 when crossing. Taste, or rather the situation, will decide if they 

 should be partially concealed, or entirely exposed. 



I detest sketches of great things. There must be no failure 

 when one takes them in hand. No Ruins of Palmyra in the 

 taste of General Conway. Their whiteness, their low columns, 

 are a bad example : their vaults, too well kept, are ridiculous. 

 Ruins ought to offer an idea of things deserving respect, which 

 have passed, and of celebrated people who inhabited them ; but 

 when we see the Greek of many Englishmen and the Gothic of 

 Mr Walpole, one is tempted to think the delirium of a night- 

 mare has presided over their work. I like his l Castle of Otranto,' 

 as much as that on the Thames, which is as mad, and not more 

 lively. 



Temples ought to inspire pleasure, or recall that secret terror, 



1 The Garden of Zarskojeselo or Tzarsco-Celo (Imperial Spot) mentioned by 

 de Ligne was laid out by Catherine II. of Russia about 1768. She acquired 

 the English taste in gardening from reading the ' Hausvater ' by Count 

 Munchhausen. 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 Busch of Hackney. In 1772 he commenced his work at 

 Pulkova, about five miles from Tzarsco-Celo, which, visited by Catherine in 



1774 completely satisfied her, with its winding, shady, gravel walks and fine 

 lawn. 'This is what I have long wished to have,' she exclaimed. From 



1775 till 1789 Busch worked in the Tzarsco-Celo gardens, and was succeeded 

 by his son Joseph Busch. The Emperor Paul, her successor, preferred straight 

 walks and clipped trees, and Alexander patronised both styles. (London.) 



