Gardens of Nymphenburg. 387 



heavy burden of taxes which are necessary to keep up these 

 expensive establishments. 



The palace and gardens of Nymphenburg are situated about 

 four miles from Munich, on a perfectly flat surface, without 

 any distant prospect, the country around being elevated 

 table-land for several miles in every direction. There never 

 was an English garden the merits of which might be more 

 completely ascertained by the study of the plan. {Jig. 99.) 

 These gardens were laid out by Louis Sckell, and contain 

 two of the finest jets of water in Germany. These jets are 

 not supplied by elevated fountains, but by the pressure pro- 

 duced, in one case, by a machine driven by water, and in 

 another, by a steam engine: both are the invention of the 

 Chevalier Baader, the chief of the engineers of the mines of 

 Bavaria. The water is forced into strong hemispherical air- 

 vessels by pumps, driven by undershot water-wheels : these 

 air-vessels are connected by tubes, which unite in a main, 

 which supplies a jet, shown in the ground plan {Jig. 99.). and 

 in the view. {Jig. 104<.^) Air is drawn in along with the water; 

 and, when it escapes by the jet, it makes a loud crackling 

 noise. The use of the air-vessels, however, is not to supply 

 this air; but, by the powerful compression the air in them 

 undergoes, to afford a compensating resistance to the water, 

 at any moment when the power of the pumps diminishes or 

 becomes irregular. These vessels, in short, serve the same 

 purpose in hydraulics as the fly-wheel does in mechanics. 

 Several animals were at one time kept in this garden, but at 

 present there are only some beavers. 



When the natural disadvantages of Nymphenburg, with 

 regard to situation and climate, are considered, it must be 

 allowed to be one of the greatest and the most successful 

 gardening efforts in Germany. The trees, it will be seen 

 from the plan, are beautifully massed and grouped ; and, at 

 the same time, breadth of lawn is preserved and depth of 

 view maintained. The straight walks, on both sides of the 

 central canal, are lined with large orange trees in the summer 

 season. As compared with English gardens, however, of the 

 same extent and style, the gardens at Nymphenburg are 

 deficient in evergreens, and in variety of trees and shrubs ; 

 but this defect is owing to the climate. As far as art is con- 

 cerned, the late M. Sckell and his successor have done every 

 thing that modern skill in planting, and in artificially un- 

 dulating the surface, could suggest. Every part of these 

 gardens is open to the public at all times, without any dis- 



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