{Public iparfts 287 



doubt, if the same intelligent study could have been 

 applied to the selection of a site which was given later 

 to devising contrivances to remedy its defects, the 

 park could have been made still more satisfying. 

 Nevertheless it was the primary effort of the design- 

 ers to make as large open spaces as were practicable. 

 Two considerable stretches of greensward were pro- 

 cured in the lower part at great expense by blast- 

 ing out protruding rock and filHng the space with 

 earth and mould. As it is the green contains about 

 sixteen acres and the ball ground but ten acres, al- 

 though they both seem much larger. The rolling 

 surface of the green and its obscure borders where the 

 Hmits of the grass are lost in the shady recesses among 

 the trees through which glimpses of grassy slopes are 

 seen at intervals beyond, all suggest indefinite dis- 

 tances to the imagination. All the roads are ar- 

 ranged so as to bring these spaces into view — several 

 times from different points with varying effect. Of 

 course, there is a greater sense of enlargement and 

 freedom experienced in the north meadows, but even 

 here only nineteen acres could possibly be secured. 

 These small picturesque scenes, therefore, were not 

 used because the designers considered them prefer- 

 able to large expanses and simple groves, but because 

 this was the only possible method of treating the 

 ground. They were so used, however, as to produce 

 the same effect upon the imagination as broad pas- 

 toral scenes. The small spaces are distributed 

 through the park in such a way that they carry for- 



