LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE 5 



That most delightful and interesting writer, Philip Gilbert 

 Hamerton, says of landscape: "We use the word in two 

 distinct senses, a general and a particular. In the general 

 sense the word, 'landscape' without the article, means the 

 visible material world, all that can be seen on the surface 

 of the earth by a man who is himself upon the surface; and 

 in the special sense 'a landscape' means a piece of the earth's 

 surface that can be seen at once, and it is always understood 

 that this piece will have a certain artistic unity or suggestion 

 of unity in itself"; and further he adds, "although the word 

 refers to the natural land, it does not exclude any human 

 works that are upon the land." The word is derived from 

 two good Anglo-Saxon parts, "land" and the suffix "scape," 

 corresponding to "skip" or "ship," as in the word "friend- 

 ship," meaning "the state or condition of being." Landscape 

 then means "the state or condition of being land." When 

 we come to add the word architecture, however, the conno- 

 tation conveys to many people a wrong impression, but it 

 should not, for in its early and primitive meaning the word 

 architect meant simply and solely "chief workman" or 

 "master artisan." It is well, I believe, for us to recall this 

 earlier meaning of the word at the present time. 



It is quite largely the architect himself who is responsible 

 for any wrong impression that may have developed in the 

 use of the term landscape architect ; as many have assumed 

 that, because the word "architect" is used at all, the term 

 "landscape architect" means simply an architect who med- 

 ples a bit with the landscape immediately surrounding his 

 buildings. Many architects have done this, with regrettable 

 results both to the client and to the profession of land- 

 scape architecture. I think it is but fair to suggest that if 

 the architect solves the problems of his buildings success- 

 fully, he may well leave to the landscape architect the mat- 

 ter of designing the surroundings for them, realizing that his 

 own architectural problems are many and difficult, and that 

 the trained landscape architect can, by co-operating with 

 him, greatly improve the net result; for, as we all know, the 

 effect of many a successful building has been seriously im- 

 paired by lack of a proper setting. 



What Mr. Olmsted meant when he termed himself a land- 

 scape architect was that he was aiming to be a master artisan 

 in matters pertaining to land and to human works thereon, 

 having regard both to the beauty of its appearance and to its 



