46 



HISTORY OF GARDENING. 



Part I. 



marble ; it is in a chaste style of Grecian architecture, and praised by Wilson ( Tours on Lhe 

 Conlinent, 1820), as one of the best pieces of architecture in Prussia. It is built close to 

 the lake, and the kitchen is placed in an island, disguised as a temple, and connected by 

 a subaquarian passage. Those sumptuous works were the joint productions of the coun- 

 sellor Langhans, professor Hirschtield, and the architect Gontard, during Frederick 

 William II. 's reign. 



211. Count Schuleiiburg's garden, near Freycnwalde, was laid out when Harris, author of Henrus, was 

 envoy at Berlin, and that philosopher is said, by Hirschfield, to have rendered the count some assistance; 

 but so transient are these things, that we were unable (in 1813) to find out its site. 



212. Denmark. The gardens of Marienlust, near Elsineur, which occupy the same 

 space as those in which Hamlet's father was murdered, and those of the Prince Frede- 

 Tick, near the city, may be considered tlie Greenwich and Hyde Parks of Copenhagen. 

 Hirschfield mentions Ashberg, on the lake Pleon, as one of the finest residences in 

 Denmark in his time, and enumerates nearly a dozen others as seats of great beauty. 



Dronningard may be considered as one of the best examples of the English style. It is an extensive 

 park, the late residence of an eminent Danish banker, De Conninck, about sixteen miles from Copenhagen. 

 The grounds are situated on a declivity, which descends to a natural lake of great extent,whose circuitous 

 shores are verged with rich woody scenery, and country-houses. The soil here approaches more to a 

 clayey loam than is general on the continent ; and the climate being cold, the turf is happily of a deep tone of 

 green, and close texture. The oak and beech abound in these grounds, as well as firs, and a number of 

 exotics. Buildings are not too frequent ; but there are several, and among them a hermitage, to which 

 one of the family actually retired, on occasion of a matrimonial disappointment, and lived there for several 

 years, till roused and restored to active life by the dangers of his country. There are numbers of small 

 spots round Copenhagen, of considerable beauty, in which something of the English style has been imi- 

 tated ; but in none of the gardens of the court has it been avowedly introduced. 



213. There are viany celebrated gardens in so extensive a country as Germany, that we can- 

 not find room to particularise. The royal gardens of Munich, Stuttgard, and Hanover, 

 the gardens of Baden, Hesse Cassel, Hesse Damistadt, Saxe Gotha, Weimar, Worlitz, 

 Schweitzingen, and other places, are well deserving notice. Most of them will be 

 found described in Hirschfield's work, or noticed in the Lettres et Pensees of the Prince 

 de Ligne ; and the most modern are described in the Ahnanach du Jarditiage, a periodical 

 work, published at Leipsic ; or, in the Gardener s Magazine, a quarterly periodical work 

 in the German language. Indeed, tliere are specimens of English gardening, more or 

 less extensive, in or near the capital towns of every state in Germany ; but, by far the 

 greater number are of a very inferior description. From the arid soil and limited ex- 

 tent result bad turf and an air of constraint ; and from too many buildings and walks, 

 a distracting bustle and confusion. They are crowded with winding sanded paths con- 

 tinually intersecting each other, little clumps, and useless seats or temples, and very fre- 

 quently resemble more the attempts of mimics or caricaturists, than imitators of our taste. 

 On the continent, indeed, the defects of the English style are more frequently copied 

 than the beauties ; which, we presume, arises from the circumstances of few of those who 

 lay out such gardens, having had a proper idea of the end in view in forming them, viz. 

 a painter-like effect in every case, where it doe's not interfere with utility, or some other 

 preferable beauty ; and, in many cases, an entire allusion to natural scenery. It is dif- 

 ficult for a person of limited education and travel to form a distinct idea of what English 

 gardens really are. The foreigner can seldom divest himself of the idea of a very limited 

 and compact space as requisite for this purpose ; the reverse of which is the case with all 

 our best scenes of picturesque beauty. The English gardens in the vicinity of Dresden, 

 Brunswick, Hamburgh, Prague, Toplitz, Leipsic, and other places, have given rise to 

 those remarks, in which even those professedly English in Prussia might be included. 

 There are some exceptions which might be pointed out at Cassel, Stutgard, (for views of 

 these gardens, see V Almanack du Jardinage,') Weimar, not unlike Kensington gardens, 

 (see Description du Pare de Weimar, et du Jardinde Tieffurth, Erfurt, 1797,) the park of 

 Fiirstenstein near Breslaw, Mergentheim, Worlitz, praised by the Prince de Ligne, and 

 the walk at Munich, laid out by Count Eumford. {Ed. Encyc. art. Lajidscape Gard.) 



214. The Duke of Baden's gardens at Schweitzingen {fig. 16.), between the Rhine and the Mayne, are 

 considered by Kraft as the most delightful in Germany. They cover a surface of about 300 acres, and con- 

 tain the ancient castle of the Marquises of Baden (1). " The marc^uisate of Baden," says KratT:, " having 

 progressively and considerably increased by means of a numerous lamily, wings were obliged to be built on 

 each side, divided into apartments. The hot-houses, which form the'wings (2, 2), have been much in- 

 creased. In front and more advanced, is the garden, in the French style, executed on a circular plan. 

 In the middle of the avenue are four grass plots, bordered and enamelled with flowers. In the middle are 

 little basins with fountains, one of which (3) throws the water sixty-seven feet high. On the right and 

 left are plantations of odoriferous shrubs, orange-trees, embellished with statues and vases of the finest 

 marble. Farther on are discovered the gardens, called the groves, situated on the right and left, laid out 

 in different forms, and embellished with a number of figures, vases, statues, the temple of Minerva 

 (4), the great rock surmounted by a figure of Pan (5), and Venus bathing (6). Higher up is the garden of 

 the large grove, ornamented with numerous figures (7, 7, 7, 7), altars, tombs, urns, &c. Shady walks 

 lead to the great basin (8), the gates leading to which have groups of figures on the pedestals (9, 9). The 

 Grand Duke reserves the grand basin for the amusement of his family, par des petites navigations. A 

 very magnificent Turkish mosque (10) is erected on the left Here begins the picturesqtie garden, with 

 aitificial hills, vales, and slopes ; many different sorts of trees ; a temple of Mercury in ruins (ll)j and va- 



