158 



A TALK ABOUT PUBLIC PARKS AND GARDENS. 



the annual expenses, required to keep it in 

 the requisite condition. 



Trav. There is, to my mind, but one 

 effectual and rational mode of doing this — 

 by a voluntary taxation on the part of all 

 the inhabitants. A few shillings each per- 

 son, or a small per centage on the value of 

 all the property in a tow^n, would keep a park 

 of an hundred or two acres in admirable 

 order, and defray all the incidental expen- 

 ses. Did you ever make a calculation of 

 the sum voluntarily paid in towns like this, 

 of 9000 inhabitants, for pew rent in church- 

 es and places of worship ? 



Ed. No. 



Trav. Very well ; I have had the curi- 

 osity lately to do so, and find that in a town 

 of 9000 souls, and with 10 " meeting-hou- 

 ses" of various sects, more than $10,000 are 

 voluntarily paid every year for the privilege 

 of sitting in these churches. Does it ap- 

 pear to you impossible that half that sum 

 (a few shillings a year each,) would be 

 willingly paid every year for the privilege 

 of an hundred acres of beautiful park or 

 pleasure grounds, where every man, woman 

 and child in the community could have, 

 for a few shillings, all the soft verdure, the 

 umbrageous foliage, the lovely flowers, the 

 place for exercise, recreation, repose, that 

 Victoria has in her Park of Windsor. 



Ed. Not at all, if our countrymen could 

 be made to look upon the matter in the 

 same light as yourself. But while no men 

 contribute money so willingly and liberally 

 as we Americans for the support of religion, 

 or indeed for the furtherance of any object 

 of moral good, we are slow to understand 

 the value and influence of beauty of this 

 material kind, on our daily lives. 



Trav. But we must believe it, because 

 the Beautiful is no less eternal than the 

 True and the Good. And it is the pro- 

 vince of the press — of writers who have 



the public ear — to help those to see (wfidi 

 are slow to perceive it,) how much these 

 outward influences have to do with better- 

 ing the condition of a people, as good 

 citizens, patriots, men. Nay, more ; what 

 an important influence these public resorts, 

 of a rational and refined character, must 

 exert in elevating the national character, and 

 softening the many little jealousies of so- 

 cial life by a community of enjoyments. 

 A people will have its pleasures, as cer- 

 tainly as its religion or its laws ; and 

 whether these pleasures are poisonous and 

 hurtful, or innocent and salutary, must 

 greatly depend on the interest taken in 

 them by the directing minds of the age. 

 Get some country town of the first class to 

 set the example by making a public park 

 or garden of this kind. Let our people 

 once see for themselves the influence for 

 good which it would effect, no less than the 

 healthful enjoyment it will afford, and I feel 

 confident that the taste for public pleasure 

 grounds, in the United States, will spread 

 as rapidly as that for cemeteries has done. 

 If my own observation of the effect of these 

 places in Germany is worth anything, you 

 may take my word for it that they will be^ 

 better preachers of temperance than tempe- 

 rance societies, better refiners of national 

 manners than dancing schools, and better 

 promoters of general good feeling than any 

 lectures on the philosophy of happiness 

 ever delivered in the lecture room. In 

 short, I am in earnest about the matter, 

 and must therefore talk, write, preach, do 

 all I can about it, and beg the assistance 

 of all those who have public influence, till 

 some good experiment of the kind is fairly 

 tried in this country. 



Ed. I wish you all success in your good 

 undertaking; and will, at least, print our 

 conversation for the benefit of the readers 

 of the Horticulturist. 



