292 ORNAMENTA.L GARDENIJ^G, 



mile, about forty acres of land, not counting the two 

 side roads, Avhich are required as highways in any case. 

 How could a better use for say one hundred and twenty 

 acres be imagined as a large town garden, than in one 

 such a broad garden boulevard, with all its varied 

 beauty and numerous circles, supporting attractive archi- 

 tecture, stretching away for three continuous miles? 



A GLAN'CE AT CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK. 



It may be interesting to note here that out of seven 

 hundred and fifty acres — the area embraced by the well 

 known Central Park of New York, there could have been 

 made boulevards of the great length of six miles, and 

 four hundred and thirty feet wide (not counting side 

 drives), and fourteen miles of boulevards, from one hun- 

 dred and twenty-five to two hundred feet wide, besides 

 six parks of from fifteen to forty acres each, and still 

 have fifty acres for large circles, and leaving sixty acres 

 for the purpose of securing a large, natural park at some 

 distance away. 



If the equivalent of Central Park area had been 

 managed on a plan something as shown by figure 115, af- 

 fording superior sites for museums, fountains, statuary, 

 etc., and also for other town buildings, that are mostly 

 now hidden away, can it be doubted that far better ef- 

 'fects would have been secured for the beauty of the city, 

 and adding in many ways to its desirability as a place of 

 residence, than has been wrought by the present system? 



In considering the subject of Public Gardens generally, 

 one may be pardoned for questioning, as they see the 

 state of neglect and decay so conspicuous in late years in 

 this noted garden, what its future is to be, and what its 

 influence upon the development of upper Xew York. 



If the blame for this is laid to corruption in the man- 

 agement, more than to the circumstances of its make up, 



