16 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. 



essential principles which lie at the foundation of the art, 

 may be accounted for by the fact that they have supposed 

 themselves to be addressing a class of readers inhabiting 

 districts already brought to a condition of elaborate cult- 

 ure, and who would therefore be mainly interested in 

 details of decoration. It is obvious that the new regions 

 of the West require a vast amount of preliminary prepar- 

 ation before much attention can be paid to mere extran- 

 eous ornament. My object is to show not only that this 

 preparatory work is justly the province of the landscape 

 gardener, but that it is in reality the essentially important 

 part of his art which gives character and expression to 

 the whole, independently of mere decorations, which may 

 or may not be in good taste, according as they correspond 

 with the expression thus conferred. Yet the idea so 

 generally prevails that the landscape gardener has no 

 concern with these preliminary works, that I was repeat- 

 edly told when I first thought of establishing myself in 

 the West, that I need not hope to succeed ; that people 

 were too much occupied in the great work of developing 

 the resources of a new country to have time or means to 

 devote to artistic display, and that the most I could hope 

 for would be an occasional call to lay out some rich 

 man's garden near the city, and for that I should probably 

 be indebted to the ladies of the family. 



Perceiving that these opinions were based upon an 

 entire misconception of the scope of the art, whose prin- 

 ciples I conceived to lie at the foundation of all improve- 

 ments of land, my first efforts were directed to making 

 known through the public press, and otherwise, as oppor- 



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