Stiff vigil ending in very famous gardens surrounded by water (8)
I believe the answer is:
lykewake
'ending in very famous gardens surrounded by water' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'stiff vigil' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'vigil' could be 'wake' (wake is a kind of vigil) and 'wake' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for lykewake that I've seen is " Late night vigil".)