LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. 35 



favor, that the first cost of laying out is less than that of 

 a more elaborate achitectural arrangement, because any 

 surveyor can run out the lines, and morever, there is no 

 way in which so many lots can be got out of a given area. 

 *By a parity of reasoning, square houses would cost less 

 than more elaborate buildings, because any carpenter can 

 build them, and they will cut up into rooms more 

 economically than an irregular building. Yet people do 

 not hesitate to pay large prices for elaborate architectural 

 designs for buildings, which are to last at most for a few 

 generations, while they suffer a town, which is to last 

 forever, to grow up without an effort at adaptation to 

 present circumstances or future necessities, while it is 

 obvious in many cases that present economy involves 

 enormous and irremediable future outlay or loss. The 

 instances in which irreparable and inestimable evils have 

 resulted from the violation of such principles of landscape 

 architecture, as are indicated by the above questions, 

 may be found in almost every city in the country, and 

 the almost superhuman efforts which some of them 

 are making to obtain relief, afford sufficient evidence 

 of the importance of timely exercise of care for their 

 prevention. 



It may not at first appear that any very serious objec- 

 tion can be urged against the rectangular system when 

 the site is a perfectly level one, but the consideration of 

 a case in point, whose exceptions may serve as illustra- 

 tions of the truth of the general rule, will prove that it 

 involves the sacrifice of advantages whose value can 

 hardly be estimated. 



