280 Landscape Gardening 



products, but only as amateurs. They know no more of 

 that intense enjoyment of her who plans, creates, and 

 daily watches the growth of those gardens or flowers, - - no 

 more of absolute, living enjoyment, which the English have 

 in out-of-door pursuits, than a mere amateur, who goes 

 through a fine gallery of pictures, knows of the intensified 

 emotions which the painters of those pictures experienced 

 in their souls, when they gazed on the gradual growth and 

 perfected splendor of their finest masterpieces. 



As it is plain, from our love of the country, that we are 

 not French at heart, this manifestation that we complain 

 of, must come from our natural tendency to copy the social 

 manners of the most polished nation in the world. And it 

 is indeed quite wonderful how, being scarcely in the least 

 affected by the morale, we still borrow almost instinctively, 

 and entirely without being aware of it, so much from la belle 

 France. That our dress, mode of life, and intercourse, is 

 largely tinged with French taste, every traveller notices. 

 But it goes farther. Even the plans of our houses become 

 more and more decidedly French. We have had occasion, 

 lately, to make considerable explorations in the domestic 

 architecture of France and England, and we have noticed 

 some striking national peculiarities. One of these relates to 

 the connection of the principal apartments. In a French 

 house, the beau ideal is to have everything ensuite; all the 

 rooms open into each other; or, at least, as many of the 

 largest as will produce a fine effect. In an English house, 

 every room is complete in itself. It may be very large, and 

 very grand, but it is all the worse for being connected with 

 any other room; for that destroys the privacy which an 

 Englishman so much loves. 



Does any one, familiar with the progress of building in the 

 United States for the last ten years, desire to be told which 

 mode we have followed? And yet, there are very few who 

 are aware that our love of folding-doors, and suites of 

 apartments, is essentially French. 



Now our national taste in gardening and outdoor em- 

 ployments, is just in the process of formation. Honestly 



