230 PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROL'NDS. 



to -vvisli that squares were empty places^ or even the 

 Bites of bustling markets, rather than that they should 

 contiuue in that paltry condition in which most of 

 them actually exist. 



And yet, such would be a consummation greatly to 

 be deplored. People, while planning a section of a 

 town or city, will think of a square with its hoped-for 

 greenery a hundred times sooner than of a jolace^ or 

 open paved area. Dismiss the conception of a square, 

 and a block of dense parallel streets will certainly 

 come in its stead. Probably the most imperfect square- 

 garden is more propitious to health than a paved area 

 is, particularly in the heats of summer. Besides, the 

 garden is a place of refuge and of play to the children 

 and the juvenile people of our cities. "Why, then, 

 will proprietors, after they have expended many hun- 

 dred pounds on parapet walls and iron railing, not go 

 to the trifling additional expense of engaging the ser 

 vices of a qualilied professional man? The square- 

 garden is surely not an insoluble problem, though it 

 has its difficulties everywhere; and when it is to be 

 formed on a dead level, and still more on a slightly- 

 twisted surface, its natural felicities are not consider- 

 able. A practiced eye will at least avoid conspicuous 

 blunders. An ordinary courage might suffice to make 

 a few gaps in the encircling belt. And we must add, 

 that after a garden of any kind has been formed at 

 considerable cost, it is a self-defrauding economy that 

 grudges or withholds the necessary maintenance. To 

 afford unalloyed pleasure, all gardens must be " trim," 

 to use the epithet of Milton ; and this is especially 

 true of the square or street-garden ; which, as we have 

 seen, is peculiarly exposed, from its situation, to be 



