bury and Winchester. These consist in each case either of a long broad walk pleasantly bordered and leading to fine views, or a few acres of smooth turf with shaded borders. Most villages in England have a private park near them, which people are allowed to use. When this is not the case, even a hamlet almost invariably has at least a bit of cricket ground or common, where, on benches under a patriarchal oak or elm, the old people meet to gossip and watch the sports of the vigorous youth. Phœnix park at Dublin (1,752 acres) is a fine upland meadow fringed and dotted with trees, but badly laid out and badly kept, being much larger than the town requires or can afford to take suitable care of. — The old towns of the continent have generally provided themselves with recreation grounds by outgrowing their ancient borders of wall and moat and glacis, razing the wall, filling part of the moat, and so, with more or less skilful management of the materials, making the groundwork of a garden in the natural style. This is done admirably at Frankfort, Leipsic, and Vienna. Elsewhere simple broad walks bordered with trees have been laid out upon the levelled parts. The principal promenade of Vienna is the Prater, the chief feature of which is a straight carriage road over a mile long, with a walk on one side and a riding pad on the other. It contains near the town a great number of coffee houses and playhouses; but as it is 5 m. long, considerable portions are thoroughly secluded and rural. Before the recent improvements of the Bois de Boulogne, it was the most frequented large recreation ground in the world. There are numerous other public grounds at Vienna, both urban and suburban. The English garden at Munich was laid out under the direction of Count Rumford by the baron von Skell. It has serious defects, but its scenery in the English style has been considered more agreeable than that of any other public park on the continent; it is about 4 m. long and half a mile wide. The Thiergarten at Berlin contains over 200 acres of perfectly flat land, chiefly a close wood, laid out in straight roads, walks, and riding pads; its scenery is uninteresting. The Prussian royal gardens of Sans Souci, Charlottenburg, and Heiligensee are all extensive grounds, the two former in mixed, the latter in natural style. Public grounds worthy of a traveller's attention exist at Cologne, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Hanover, Brunswick, Baden, Cassel, Darmstadt, Gotha, Weimar, Wörlitz, Schwetzingen, Teplitz, Prague, and Hamburg. Coffee or beer houses are important adjuncts of German public gardens. The refreshments furnished are plain and wholesome, and the prices moderate. Many families habitually resort to these for their evening meal, especially when, as is usually the case, there is the additional attraction of excellent music furnished by the government. The gardens of Antwerp, the Hague, and Warsaw, and the “city grove” of Pesth, are also remarkable. The famous summer gardens of St. Petersburg are not extensive, being but half a mile long by a quarter of a mile wide, and formal in style. They contain fine trees, are rich in statuary (boxed up in winter), and are the most carefully kept public gardens in the world, as shown in the exceeding freshness and vigor of the plants and flowers and in the deep vivid green of the turf, the more fashionable promenade of St. Petersburg is in the gardens of Katharinenhof, where on the first of May an annual procession of private carriages of almost endless length is headed by that of the emperor. A remarkable ground is that of Tzarskoye Selo, in which is the residence of the imperial family, about two hours from St. Petersburg. Besides the palace, it contains temples, banqueting houses, and theatres, a complete village in the Chinese style, a Turkish mosque, a hermitage, and numerous monuments of military and other achievements. But beyond this museum of incongruous objects there is a part in which there is natural and very beautiful scenery both open and wooded, and much of it is simple. The keeping of the ground employs 600 men. Stockholm has a great variety of delightful waterside rural walks; but the chief object of pride with its people is the Djurgard or deer park, which is a large tract of undulating ground about 3 m. in circumference, containing grand masses of rock and some fine old trees. The Haga park, also at Stockholm, is picturesque, and has the peculiarity of natural water communications between its different parts and the city, so that it is much visited in boats. The environs of Copenhagen contain many grounds of public resort, but the notable promenade of the city is the royal deer park (Dyrhave). In all the Italian cities, the chief public rural resorts are gardens attached to the villas of ancient noble families. The Cascine of Florence is an old pasture of the dairy of the former grand dukes on the banks of the Arno, passing through which are broad straight carriage drives. It contains little that is attractive, but commands delicious views. At a space whence several roads radiate, a band of music usually performs at intervals during the promenade hours. The municipality is now preparing promenades and recreation grounds which promise to be of remarkable interest. The fashionable promenade of Rome has been on the Pincian hill, which has few attractions except in its magnificent distant views. Since Rome was made the capital of the new kingdom of Italy, large public grounds in other quarters have been projected and in great part formed by the municipality. At Naples the fashionable promenade is the Riviera di Chiaja, a public street. It is divided into a ride, a drive, and a walk, and is nearly a mile in length, with a breadth of 200 ft. A part of it is separated from the shore of the bay of Naples by the villa Reale, planted in the garden style. Most towns of Spanish or Portuguese origin
