THE 



GARDENERS MAGAZINE, 



JULY, 1827. 



PART I. 



ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. 



Art. I. History of the First Introduction of the Modern 

 Style of laying out Grounds into Russia ,• with some Ac- 

 count of the Imperial Residences of Tzarsco Celo and 

 Taurida. By One of the Imperial Gardeners. 



J. zarsco Celo was originally brought into notice by the 

 Empress Catharine I., who built a small palace there, and 

 gave it that name, which is derived from Tzar, imperial, and 

 Celo, a spot ; Imperial Spot or Hamlet. At twelve miles dis- 

 tance is another place, where the same Catharine built a small 

 palace, called Crasnoi Celo, or Beautiful Spot. On the Em- 

 press Elizabeth coming to the throne she built the present 

 palace, with every degree of extravagance of finery. All the 

 ornaments, statues, and vases were gilt in leaf gold, on oil. 

 The value in gold amounted to above a million of ducats. 

 The front of the building is above 1200 feet long. The 

 garden at that time was laid out in the Dutch taste, with 

 straight walks, the trees all clipped in different forms, and the 

 lateral walks lined with hedges of lime trees; the latter still exist, 

 only that the trees are not clipped. After the death of Eliza- 

 beth, Catharine the Second ascended the throne. About the 

 year 1768 Count Munchausen published a book in German, 

 called the Hausvater (Father of a Family), the reading of 

 which seemed to give Catharine a taste for modern gardening. 

 She immediately ordered that no trees should be clipped in 

 any of the imperial gardens, but that they should be left to 

 nature. After this she told her architect, and gardener, that 

 in making gardens they should endeavour to follow nature ; 

 but this they could neither feel nor comprehend ; they at- 

 Vol. II. — No. 8. c c 



