312. The Prater, or meadow, is an extensive public promenade, suited both for horses and carriages and pedestrians. It forms part of an island in the Danube, and consists of an artificial grove, used as a tea-garden; of an avenue as a course for carriages; but chiefly of the scattered remains of an ancient forest of oaks and thorns, used for walking in and for exhibiting all manner of fetes. We consider it the most agreeable scene of the kind on the Continent. Here, in the summer evenings, where all Vienna was assembled, the imperial family used to mix familiarly with the people, and Francis the First, unattended, and in the plainest garb, to select his table and rush-bottomed chair, and to call for his coffee like any other citizen.
