NEW AMSTERDAM GARDENS 77 



ness, balance, strength; minus imagination. Indeed 

 it is so true to them that it has even crept into speech. 

 The idly spoken "square, sturdy Dutch type" embod- 

 ies a profound truth, as many another easy slipping 

 phrase does without our realizing it. 



This is not to say, however, that only the square 

 form is to be found or expected in Dutch garden de- 

 sign. Indeed no; many graceful turns are given it, 

 and varying forms are present. But the square is the 

 underlying, construction basis; the work of these 

 people is built upon this primarily. And it cannot be 

 built upon any other, because this and this alone ex- 

 presses them. Perfectly poised, it is the form of the 

 race's individuality; and the one other form com- 

 monly seen in a Dutch garden is the circle at the cen- 

 ter of this square, which serves to emphasize the exact- 

 ness and the balance and the poiss by emphasizing 

 the center at which they rest. 



The New Netherland farms whose plans are given, 

 show this prevailing characteristic even after almost 

 a hundred years of English possession. Nicholas 

 Bayard was the cousin of Governor Stuyvesant's wife, 

 hence a man of quality, undoubtedly. Here then is an 

 instance of a place developed with some idea beyond the 

 mere economic phase of getting the most out of a given 

 space; yet here is the same form, setting a definite 

 stamp upon the earth, as of a great signet imprinting 



