PARKS. 



133 



and freer scale than that suitable to landscape garden- 

 ing. It is the design in the park, indeed, to give a 

 suggestion of the open country, not of the contracted 

 house grounds, and for this it needs to be of consider- 

 able extent, and to embrace woodland, open meads, 

 glens, elevations, small lakes, flowing streams, and all 

 that constitutes and enhances the charui of attractive 

 landscapes. All this, of course, is necessarily done on 

 a small scale, except in the few parks of enormous di- 

 mensions, and the effort to improve the natural advan- 

 tages to the utmost leads usually to an artificial arrange- 

 ment which is far removed from the work of nature, 

 but which is, perhaps, uiore pleasing to city eyes. 



Of European cities, Paris and London are the best 

 provided with parks. In France, as we have already 

 said, the ancient state forests have been utilized for 

 tliis purpose. There are more than 20 such domains 

 open to public use, within easy reach by rail of Paris, 

 varying in size from St. Cloud, of 1000 acres, to the 

 gre:it forest of Fontainebleau, with its 81, 740 acres 

 and its thousands of miles of roads and paths. Some 

 of these possess much natural beauty, such as fine old 

 trees, stretches of beautiful lawn, winding streams, 

 picturesque scenery, etc. They have already been 

 adapted to the enjoyment of many generations of 

 kings and nobles, and need little further change to 

 make them suitable for the recreation of the people. 

 Of those within ten miles of Paris the parks of Bou- 

 logne, Vincennes, St. Cloud, Marly, ana St. Germain 

 are among the most notable. Versailles is yet more 

 famous, being admired for its palace and gardens more 

 than for its woodland scenery. The real parks of 

 Paris, however, are Boulogne (2158 acres), and Vin- 

 cennes (2225 acres). These are near the city, and form 

 the chief daily recreation-grounds of the people. The 

 Bois de Boulogne is not well adapted by nature for 

 park purposes, l>eing level and with poor soil, yet it 

 has been much improved in the portions adjoining the 

 great avenues which traverse it. There are in addition 

 1 small parks of from 40 to 75 acres, and nu- 

 merous city squares. 



I .Minion is abundantly supplied with parks and small 

 breathing-spaces, which are well distributed throughout 

 the city, and comprise in all a very considerable area. 

 In the West End, for instance, occur Hyde Park (390 

 '. Regent's Park (470 acres), Kensington Gardens 

 (3liO acresT, Green Park (70 acres), St. James Park (80 

 acres), and several smaller places. The other quarters 

 of the city are equally well provided, while outside the 

 metropolitan limits are numerous places of public 

 resort, among them several of great extent. Epping 

 Forest, now set aside for public use, contains _5600, 

 Richmond Park 2253, and the more distant Windsor 

 Park 3800 acres. 



The other cities of Europe, while not equally well 

 provided with public pleasure-grounds, have their 

 parks, some of them quite extensive, and are adding 

 to their advantages with commendable rapidity. One 

 of the later ideas in this direction is the formation of 

 broad drives or parkways, adorned with trees and 

 grassy margins, walks, drives, and seats, and so laid 

 out as to form trunk-lines of traffic, with the interior 

 streets as feeders. Paris has taken the lead in this 

 conception, and has over 80 miles of such avenues, 

 from 100 to 300 feet wide. In all this city has 120 

 miles of tree-lined boulevards. 



In the above respects Europe is in advance of the 

 United States, in which the park idea is only about 30 

 years old, though it has been carried out since its in- 

 auguration with that activity which forms a distinguish- 

 . uicrican characteristic. In planning the city of 

 Philadelphia William Penn provided five breathing 

 places for the inhabitants, which have recently been 

 much improved, though the largest one of them, indeed, 

 has been swallowed up as a site for the new City-Hall. 

 Boston took a similar step as early as 1634, by laying 

 aside the Common as a public garden, though it long 



within the memory of living men. This small en- 

 closure of 48 acres, with a smaller recent addition, is 

 all that Boston yet possesses in the way of a park, 

 though steps are now being taken to provide a series 

 of public pleasure-grounds on a scale more in accord- 

 ance with modern ideas. 



The id_ea of the formation of Parks on a large scale 

 in American cities seems to have originated with A. 

 J. Downing, (q. v.) of New York, or at least he was 

 the first to openly advocate it in some articles written in 

 1850, in which he suggested the need of a great public 

 park in New York city. This suggestion quickly bore 

 fruit, for in the succeeding year the mayor of that city 

 strongly recommended the establishment of a park, 

 and in 1853 an act was passed setting aside the locality 

 of the present Central Park for that purpose. Another 

 locality, known as Jones's Woods, was also named, this 

 being a large and well-wooded tract along the East 

 River, opposite Blackwell's Island. It had better 

 natural advantages, but was of smaller size than the 

 Central Park tract, and was finally abandoned in favor 

 of the latter, which was purchased at a cost of 

 $5,160,369.90. The tract of land thus set aside is 2J 

 miles long by half a mile wide, and contains, with some 

 later additions, 683 acres. It extends from 59th to 

 110th streets and from Fifth to Eighth avenues on the 

 city plan, these streets, which were then open ground, 

 having since been solidly built up, so that the park is 

 now completely embraced by the city. One awkward 

 feature of the locality is the existence of the two 

 Croton reservoirs, of 150 acres in extent, which are 

 so situated as to divide the park tract into two portions, 

 with but a narrow line of connection, and have been a 

 serious detriment to its full adaptation to public use. 



Plans for its improvement were advertised for, the 

 accepted one being that offered by F. L. Olmsted and 

 Calvert Vaux, gentlemen well suited by their former 

 studies for the proper execution of the task thus as- 

 signed them. The ground chosen for the park was by 

 no means well adapted by nature for such a purpose. 

 Only a few slight elevations broke its general flatness, 

 and it presented an aspect of barren ugliness from 

 which it seemed a hopeless task to seek to work out a 

 scene of beauty. But by the free expenditure of 

 money and the employment of all the resources of the 

 landscape gardener, Central Park has been made ex- 

 ceedingly attractive, there being few prettier places of 

 resort, for its extent, on the continent. The lower 

 park (that portion below the reservoirs) was neces- 

 sarily treated artificially, and is rather an extensive 

 garden than a park in any broad sense. A rocky 

 ridge of some slight elevation traversed it, and the 

 ground has been handled with great skill, bringing out 

 in full all its possibilities of improvement. Through 

 its reaches of umbrageous vegetation and broad 

 stretches of greensward runs a wide avenue, the Mall, 

 which is adorned with much fine statuary, and leads to 

 the Terrace, a very handsome architectural feature of 

 the park, ornamented with elaborate carvings and an 

 attractive fountain which overlooks the lake. The 

 latter is a winding sheet of water, managed with the 

 utmost skill, and for its extent perhaps the most at- 

 tractive bit of water scenery in any American city park. 

 Beyond the lake extends the Ramble, a hilly slope 

 leading to the reservoir, which has been treated with 

 less artificiality, and made to resemble an expanse of 

 undulating woodland. 



The upper park, which is connected with the lower 

 by a narrow strip running along the reservoirs, has been 

 differently treated. Its natural advantages were su- 

 perior, and a broader handling was adopted, without 

 the architectural adornments which constitute a leading 

 feature of the lower section. On the whole it may be 

 said that a very unpromising piece of land has been 

 managed with great skill, and all its possibilities of 

 landscape effect fully brought out. 



To the attractions proper to the park have been 



continued unimproved, and was used as a cow-pasture I added others of a very useful character. One corner 



