No. XVII.
How to make upon the Thames a floating garden of pleasure, with trees, flowers, banqueting-houses, and fountains, stews for all kind of fishes, a reserve for snow to keep wine in, delicate bathing places, and the like; with music made by mills; and all in the midst of the stream, where it is most rapid.
NOTE.
The most celebrated gardens of this description were those made by the Mexicans on the great lake which surrounds the capital; here they planted trees, and cultivated maize, pepper, and other plants necessary for their support. In progress of time, as these floating fields grew numerous from the industry of the people, they formed among them gardens for flowers and other odoriferous plants, which were employed in the worship of their gods, and which served also for the recreation of the nobles. Every day of the year, at sun-rise, innumerable vessels, laden with various kinds of flowers and herbs, cultivated on the water, arrived by the canal, at the great market-place of the capital.
To form their floats, they first plait or twist willows, with roots of marsh plants, and upon this foundation they place the mud and dirt which they draw from the bed of the lake. When the owner of a garden wishes to change his situation, to remove from a disagreeable neighbour, or to come nearer his own family, he gets into his little vessel and tows the plantation after him.—Vide Nov. His. de Mexico par le Abbé Francesco Saverio Clavigero.
The floating pleasure bath moored in the River Thames, near Westminster Bridge, is supported by empty casks; and this plan, if assisted by mooring-chains, may be applied to gardens of any reasonable extent, even in the broadest and most rapid rivers.