Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

164VISIT TO THE ISLANDS:

self in an English park. This vast garden overspread with "villas" and cccottages"* serves instead of the country to the inhabitants of Petersburg: it is the camp of the courtiers, thickly inhabited during я brief portion of the year, and totally deserted during the remainder.

The district of the Islands is reached by various excellent carriage roads, connected with bridges thrown over the different arms of the sea.

In wandering among its shady alleys, it is not difficult to imagine one's self in the country, but it is a monotonous and artificial country. No undulations of the ground, always the same kind of trees, — how is it possible to produce pictorial effect from such materials ! Under this zone the plants of the hot-house, the fruits of the tropics, and even the gold and precious stones of the mines, are less rare than our commonest forest trees. With wealth every thing may be procured here that can exist under glass, and this is much towards furnishing the scenery of a fairy tale, but it is not sufficient to make a park. One of the groves of chestnut or beech which beautify our hills would be a marvel in Petersburg. Italian houses surrounded by Laponian trees, and filled with the flowers of all countries, form a contrast which is singular rather than agreeable.

The Parisians, who never forget Paris, call the tract of the Islands the Russian Champs Elysées, but it is larger, more rural, and yet more adorned and more artificial, than our Parisian promenade. It is

* The allusion here is evidently made to a London rather than to an " English" park. — Trans.