562 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



laid out in some other style. These 

 artists say that, being a long and rela- 

 tively narrow rectangle set in a system 

 of parallel lines, its layout should also 

 be rectangular, that we ought to have 

 something like the Champs Elysees or 

 the avenues at Versailles. They say that 

 it should have a scheme in scale with 

 its size, that you should be able to see 

 through it from end to end and, in fact, 

 that there ought to be something grand 

 and vast, instead of the rural prettiness 

 they see in it at present. They decry 

 the meandering lines, the indefinite sur- 

 faces and vistas, that everywhere 

 abound. In short, they find in it little 

 but irresolution and aimlessness, and 

 an expression which excites in them 

 only the contemptuous verdict that 

 there is no "design" in Central Park. 



We need not concern ourselves with 

 the naive utterances of the "practical 

 men" or the real estate operators, but 

 the views of some of the others touch 

 us very closely, for among them are 

 some of the men in our own world of 

 artists whom we most respect, and in 

 whose class we all hope to be. But, if 

 you examine their criticisms of Cen- 



tral Park, you will find them all merely 

 expressions of personal opinion, not of 

 natural laws or canons of art. You will 

 find that they may have been misled by 

 prejudice for or against one style of 

 design, or by an imperfect understand- 

 ing of one style of design — the in- 

 formal. They may assert that a rec- 

 tangular piece of ground should of ne- 

 cessity have a rectangular plan, which 

 seems about as reasonable as that a 

 rectangular frame should of necessity 

 enclose a picture of rectangular pat- 

 tern ; or that the veining in a marble 

 panel must properly be perfectly sym- 

 metrical, like a piece of floor cloth. The 

 boundary lines of Central Park were 

 laid down, not by nature or the con- 

 ditions of the problem, but by the city 

 engineer. Why should they necessarily 

 control the design ? As a matter of 

 fact, once inside Central Park, it is as a 

 rule hardly possible to tell what or 

 where the boundaries are ; and when 

 you can see a boundary it is a row of 

 high buildings so far away that they 

 seem to be in no conflict with the park 

 scenery ; and probably from no point 

 within is it possible to discern the en- 



ONE OF Tin; MAXV PLACES WHERE CIIIEDREN LOVE TO PLAY. 



