THE ARCHITECTURAL STYLE. 27 



either. The most modern tendency is to admit the 

 architectural, the natural and all other possible styles of 

 gardening, to equal consideration ; to recognize that 

 each may claim greatest advantages in special situations ; 

 and to choose from among different styles, in a frame of 

 mind quite free from prejudice, the one best suited to 

 any given circumstances of environment and demand. 

 The time was, — and recently, — when English and 

 American gardeners were very much prejudiced against 

 geometrical methods of all sorts. As a result, their 

 attempted naturalistic effects were forced into situations 

 where grievous failure alone could meet them, but where 

 a less partisan good taste would have wrought beautiful 

 and satisfying results through the discredited methods. 

 One of the most renowned specimens of the Italian style 

 is shown in Fig. 7. 



Two things especially have contributea m recent 

 years to an honest appreciation in America of the claims 

 of the architectural st^yle. One is the favorable attitude 

 of discriminating praise on the jxirt of almost all Amer- 

 ican writers, more emi^hatically presented in Mr. Charles 

 A. Piatt's book, '^Italian Gardens." The second cause 

 is the satisfaction and delight felt by all in the wonder- 

 ful architectonic outdoor effects realized at the AYorld's 

 Fair. It is not so much that the gardening architecture 

 of the World's Fair was so much grander in size, extent 

 and artistic conception than anything we had previ- 

 ously had on this continent, as it is that it was seen by 

 so many hundreds of thousands of people from all parts 

 of America, to most of whom this architectural glory 

 came as a revelation. 



Before beginning to j^oint out the specific contriv- 

 ances by which the perfection of the architectural style 

 is sought, it will be best to consider its broader relations, 

 conditions and limitations. The architectural garden 

 is, iu a very proper sense, an extension, — a development 



