LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE 7 



Later, in the latter part of the eighteenth century and the 

 first of the nineteenth century, men like Repton came for- 

 ward, realizing that formality had its place and value, and 

 began to use it under certain circumstances but still called 

 themselves landscape gardeners. This latter use of the 

 term was a serious twisting of the original meaning; for a 

 garden is, properly speaking, a place engirt, inclosed or set 

 apart and highly cultivated. Landscape is, as we have seen, 

 a piece of the earth's surface that can be seen at one time by 

 a man who is himself standing upon the earth, and may, of 

 course, mean a broad stretch of country not all enclosed. 



There is another important point and one that has not 

 been particularly mentioned in discussions of the term land- 

 scape architect, one to which I have already alluded, namely, 

 that the English landscape designers mentioned were en- 

 gaged almost exclusively in the preparation of plans for 

 country estates. These were, of course, not always large, 

 and often were walled in or engirt (girt in), and, therefore, 

 perhaps in a sense gardens. Mr. Olmsted in 1856 had before 

 him not such a problem, but that of designing a great public 

 park for a large city. This work was not gardening in any 

 sense of the word; it was something quite different. It was 

 work of design, a work that could be undertaken and success- 

 fully carried out only by a "master artisan in matters per- 

 taining to land." Here were to be developed, and we know 

 how well it has been done, broad peaceful landscape effects, 

 giving the tired city dweller opportunity for restful contem- 

 plation and relief from city sights and sounds. These were 

 to be designed and executed where none had existed before, 

 and in such a way that there should be no obtrusive 

 evidence of man's elaborate control and no marring of the 

 pleasing, restful effect by such garden elements as beds of 

 geraniums or rare and striking shrubs clipped into formal 

 shapes; in other words, no gardening, as we now understand 

 that term. This was what he termed landscape architecture. 

 The French landscape designers had already adopted this 

 term, their phrase, architede paysagiste, meaning simply 

 landscape architect. 



Many of Mr. Olmsted's great works are familiar to us all. 

 They include Central Park, New York; Prospect Park, 

 Brooklyn; the almost unrivaled Park System of Boston; the 

 great work designed by him at the World's Fair at Chicago; 

 and almost innumerable country estates, notably Biltmore 



