Chapter I 



The Laying-out of a Park 



THE indispensable foundation for the build- 

 ing of a park is a controlling scheme.' It 

 should be begun and carried out with entire con- 

 sistency. It is therefore necessary to have it thor- 

 oughly thought out from the first, and guided all 

 the way through by one controlling mind, a mind 

 that should make use of the thoughts of many 

 others, welding them into an organic whole so 

 that the stamp of individuality and unity shall 

 never be lost. But let me not be misunderstood; 

 a general plan should govern the whole ; there 

 must be no room for random work; in every de- 

 tail the guiding, creating brain must be seen; and 

 it is essential that the scheme should originate 

 from the special circumstances of the artist, from 

 the experience and conditions of his life or the 

 former history of his family, limited by the lo- 

 cality with which he has to deal. I do not ad- 

 vise, however, that the whole plan should be 

 worked out in exact detail at first and doggedly 



• One principle should, above all, underlie the art of park design; 

 namely, the creation, from the material at hand, out of the place as it 

 stands, of a concentrated picture having Nature as its poetical ideal; 

 the same principle which, embodied in all other spheres of art, makes 

 of the true work of art a microcosm, a perfect, self-contained world in 

 little. 



