The German part of the population have appropriated to themselves another island ; it is on Petroffsky that the German prefers to take his cup of coffee and indulge himself with his pipe. The arrangements here are on a smaller scale ; and here only are to be found milk and cake gardens, coffee-houses and taverns, as in the neighbourhood of our towns. It must not be understood, however, that there is any thing exclusive here, and datshas, chateaux, and Russians mingle here as elsewhere.
As a thorough St. Petersburger, firmly of opinion that no city in the world is to be compared with his own, cherishes a prejudice against all that is not St. Petersburg267«, so does he most particularly prize these magic islands, and is not a little astonished, when a foreigner, to whom he displays their splendour, is not equally enchanted. The St. Petersburgers can by no means understand how any one should hesitate to place the island gardens by the side of those of Babylon, Damascus, or Shiraz, or to count St. Petersburg as a fifth paradise. Passing their whole lives in a continued tumult, in droshkies, or coaches-and-four ; having never sat buried in thought, or absorbed by a book in the still fragrance of a honeysuckle arbour ; having, in short, no such pleasant corners themselves, they cannot at all understand what a German finds wanting in their gardens when he says, " Yes, it is very fine, but not half so pleasant as in our country." Nature herself with us supplies what art leaves wanting to the decoration of the garden, and every humble citizen and peasant helps to make the picture more complete and luxuriant. In St. Petersburg, what the government and the rich leave undone, remains incomplete ; no generally-diffused spirit of gardening is at hand, and the wind whistles shrilly through every opening.
Nevertheless, and in spite of us sighing foreigners, the islands have their favourable side ; the question is only, to choose well the time and occasion to view them. Before all things let no one think of going on foot, as if he were going to the Thiergarten of Berlin, or the Prater of Vienna. It should be remembered that in St. Petersburg droshkies are always reckoned upon, that all the gardens and buildings are scattered over an extensive surfiice, and that these tableaux on a large scale are best seen the faster you drive by them. Take then, if possible, a carriage with four horses, dash through the desolate quarter of St. Petersburg Ostroft' with the speed of the wind, and pass the train of brilliant equipages that throng the avenues of Yelagln and Krestovsky on holidays and Sundays at the same i-ate ; call upon a friend, if you have one, in any of these elegant swamp-villas, and enjoy the tea or evening collation upon his luxurious divans, and in the midst of all the costly decoration of liis receptiou-roonis. Then towards sunset have a gondola, manned by half-a-dozen sturdy fellows, and row down the arm of the Neva to the Gulf of Fmland. Watch there the globe of the northern summer-sun sink into the lap of Thetis, and hurry back through the magic July night, and row roimd some of the islands, taking a wide sweep, for there is plenty of room here on the water also, punching and driving your gondohers, meanwhile, to make them go the faster. Listen then fiom the water to the sounds from the thick forest, gaze on the lights from the fishing-villages, the late illumination of the brilliant Datshas, and harken to the nightly doings on the islands, where all is as loud by night as it was by day ; and at last, return home hke a night-wandeiing ghost, when, towards one o'clock, the cold dew aimounces the retm-n of the sun.
In the way home admire on the Prospekt the palaces gleaming bright in the nightly reflex of the sun, and when, on the following morning, in drawing your bed curtains at eleven, you recal the singular dream of the past night, you wiU understand why the islands are so highly esteemed.