LANDSCAPE PARKS 



299 



in place of man-designed masses of brick and mortar, — more even 

 than to present beautiful views and compositions in natural materials.* 

 The park does all this, and this in itself is a great service ; but besides 

 this it gives, to every man who has the sensitiveness to respond to it, 

 inspiration by its suggestion of the greater natural forces of which its 

 beauty is, or seems to be, the direct manifestation. It is seldom that 

 a city is so lucky as to have near at hand really notable natural scenery ; 

 but even where it has not, its landscape parks may still heighten and 

 perfect the type of natural character which they have, so that they 

 not only give pleasure by their own beauty, such as it may be, but also 

 give some subtler inspiration by their naturalness. 



In choosing and developing the site for a landscape park, the first Site and Avail- 

 consider ations are what landscape character or characters are exempli- ^j^ Landscape 

 fied within its bounds, to what uses a park having these characters Units 

 can be put, and how completely these characters may be preserved, 

 enhanced, and maintained when the park is so used. The different 

 kinds of available landscape should be considered, so that, for instance, 

 the freedom and opportunity for exercise given by an open meadow, 

 the seclusion and shade of a wood, the sweep of view from a hill, the 

 interest of a woodland brook, might all be available somewhere in the 

 system. A very rocky, precipitous, and romantic spot might be desir- 

 able on account of its great interest; but the future effect of intensive 

 use on this character, through the presence of crowds, should be borne 

 in mind. If the interesting cliffs and bowlders and gnarled trees may 

 be looked at and not overrun, such a piece of scenery may be a very 

 desirable portion of a park. If its romantic ruggedness is likely to 

 become disheveled shabbiness under the feet of the crowd, then some 

 less interesting but more permanent character might well be chosen. 



Of course the landscape must be made sufficiently accessible so that 

 it may be enjoyed, but great pains should be taken, particularly in 

 small-scale landscape units, lest the introduction of a road or path 

 should destroy the very landscape character it was intended to dis- 



* "First, the chief end of a large park is an effect on the human organism by an 

 action of what it presents to view, which action, Hke that of music, is of a kind that 

 goes back of thought, and cannot be fully given the form of words." 



F. L. Olmsted, Sr., Notes on the Plan of Franklin Park, 1886, p. 106. 



