Rosenborg was the favourite abode of Christian IV. When first erected, it stood outside the capital, and was his summer residence when his royal duties forbade his being at Frederiksborg. At the time when Struensee threw the gardens open to the public, the flower-beds still flourished under the care of an attentive gardener. The hedges were clipped square, the orange trees formed into the shape of balls, and four large fountains threw their jets high into the air, and caught them again in circular marble basins. A buffet was erected in this garden, and the commission was granted to a Mecklenburger of the name of Gabel, a protégé of Struensee, who was afterwards permitted to open a faro bank. The gardens were illuminated with coloured lamps, especially the great grove near the spring and the neighbouring alleys. At times fireworks were let off, and it was a fine sight to see the trees and the old palace illumined by the ascending rockets, which threw a magic brilliancy over these memorials of past ages, to leave them the next moment enveloped in the darkness of the grave. The concerts at Rosenborg were frequently honoured by the presence of the court, and the king and queen were accustomed to take refreshments in the palace, and then mingle with the crowd.[147] The zealots were very fierce in their denunciations of these popular amusements. Formerly, they said, the act of profaning royal mansions by clandestine amours was considered a crime punishable with the loss of a finger-joint, and Struensee did worse in turning a royal garden into a scene of libertinism. It must be allowed, that though the principal walks were lit, the deepest gloom prevailed in the thickets, and the gardens remained open till midnight. But the _parti prêtre_ had a better cause of abuse in the faro table, even though the Foundling Hospital shared the profits of the bank. This was no justification for the mistake committed by the favourite, and led his enemies to spread a report that his great object was utterly to corrupt morals, and make the whole people as licentious as himself and his adherents.