374 Landscape Gardening 



public mind it is only necessary to refer to the rapidity with 

 which they have increased in fifteen years, as we have just 

 remarked. To enable them to judge how largely they 

 arouse public curiosity, we may mention that at Laurel 

 Hill, four miles from Philadelphia, an account was kept 

 of the number of visitors during last season; and the sum 

 total, as we were told by one of the directors, was nearly 

 30,000 persons who entered the gates between April and 

 December, 1818. Judging only from occasional observa- 

 tions, we should imagine that double that number visit 

 Greenwood, and certainly an equal number, Mount Auburn, 

 in a season.* 



We have already remarked that, in the absence of public 

 gardens, rural cemeteries in a certain degree supplied their 

 place. But does not this general interest, manifested in 

 these cemeteries, prove that public gardens, established in a 

 liberal and suitable manner near our large cities would be 

 equally successful? If 30,000 persons visit a cemetery in 

 a single season, would not a large public garden be equally 

 a matter of curious investigation? Would not such gardens 

 educate the public taste more rapidly than anything else? 

 And would not the progress of horticulture as a science and 

 an art be equally benefited by such establishments? The 

 passion for rural pleasures is destined to be the predominant 

 passion of all the more thoughtful and educated portion of 

 our people, and any means of gratifying their love for orna- 

 mental or useful gardening will be eagerly seized by hun- 

 dreds of thousands of our countrymen. 



Let us suppose a joint-stock company formed in any of 

 our cities for the purpose of providing its inhabitants with 

 the luxury of a public garden. A site should be selected 

 with the same judgment which has already been shown by 

 the cemetery companies. It should have a varied surface, 



* An interesting and significant comparison may be made between 

 1848 and the present. There are now several public parks and play- 

 grounds in the United States where the annual attendance exceeds one 

 million, and at least one where the figure reaches approximately five 

 million. F. A. W. 



