LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 1803 



subordinate objects are met only in such ways and to 

 such a degree as will not interfere with the simplicity 

 and the rural and natural quality of the scenery. 



Prospect Park, in Brooklyn, begun in 1866, is here 

 described in some detail for the purpose of affording a 

 concrete example of the principles that the writer wishes 

 to illustrate respecting rural parks. (Fig. 2096.) It 

 has an area of 5263^6 acres. Its main entrance is 

 about 3^2 miles from New York City Hall, or 1% miles 

 from Brooklyn City Hall. It is approached from the city 

 by four lines of trolley cars, but is at the city end of the 

 Parkway System, so that it must be reached through 

 ordinary streets. The chief features of its design are: 



(1) the open, park-like landscape of the Long Meadow; 



(2) the woodland section, hilly and rising to an elevated 

 outlook; (3) the lake and its surroundings; (4) a series 

 of minor passages of scenery and elements of interest 

 fitted in at points not appropriated for the main effects. 

 The most characteristic and most valuable part of the 

 park is the Long Meadow with its surrounding masses 

 of wood, from the shade of which the outlook ranges 

 over one of the most beautiful and simple park land- 



not being shady or attractive for its purpose, has now 

 been transformed into a rose-garden. On the lower 

 edge of the Long Meadow are the pools which are at 

 the source of the park ornamental water system. They 

 illustrate both the value of water in a park landscape 

 and the practical difficulty of securing and maintaining 

 agreeable natural shores within the confines of a large 

 city. Where the banks are clothed with shrubs the 

 effect is admirable, but wherever the grass-land comes 

 to the water's edge and in many places where shrubs 

 once grew, the ground has become foot-worn to utter 

 bareness. Adequate policing and prompt repair of 

 points that cannot withstand too free use should never 

 be lacking in all city parks. Leaving the Meadow, the 

 water flows down through a ravine in the woodland 

 portion of the park wholly overshadowed by trees with 

 a varied undergrowth. Through this woodland section 

 the paths and drives are comparatively narrow, numer- 

 ous and intricate, as befits the intricacy and detail of 

 sylvan scenery, and points of special interest are marked 

 by simple rustic seats, shelters, outlooks, and the like. 

 In the southern part of the park is a lake 62 acres in 

 extent, of artificial formation, but of nat- 

 ural appearance. It is large enough to 

 afford good boating in summer and skating 

 in winter for large numbers, as well as pro- 

 viding innumerable broad and beautiful 

 water views. The shores of the lake 

 are for the most part wooded with 

 tree plantations, now well grown, 

 and are very attractive except where 

 indiscriminate use has worn them 

 bare or where the originally 

 intended wild undergrowth is 

 lacking. Parts of the shore 

 have, for contrast, the open 

 meadow character, which will 

 be emphasized when 

 some of the planted 

 trees are cut. Several 

 important points were 

 chosen in the design of 

 the park as 

 places for 

 the gather- 

 ing of large 

 and dense 

 crowds, and 

 ') wereplanned 



N TiU J. 1 



2096. Plan of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, to illustrate the large rural park. 



scapes in the country. But one is not brought directly 

 to the Meadow from the outside streets. One goes at 

 first through a formal plaza, then through a retired 

 shady ante-chamber, just long enough to give a sense of 

 retirement from the city, then, if on foot, through an 

 archway under the drive that does away with the ner- 

 vousness of crossing a throng of vehicles, and then one 

 comes out suddenly upon the joyous, sunny greensward. 

 Its extent over 50 acres is enough to secure an effect 

 of breadth and enlarged freedom without bringing its 

 whole expanse into a single view. One can see that it 

 reaches beyond the projecting groves and scattered trees 

 that form the background of the main composition, and 

 he is tempted to stroll on and open up the prospects 

 thus suggested. The surrounding groves are freely used 

 for picnic parties, and although much of the ground is 

 trampled bare beneath the trees, but little serious harm 

 is done. A carrousel or merry-go-round with its loud, 

 mechanical organ, the only discordant feature of the 

 place, was removed to this point a few years ago. This 

 piece of apparatus was originally located in a retired 

 section devoted to children's games, where all sorts of 

 amusement apparatus might be placed without intrud- 

 ing on the park at large. The children's playground, 



innnnn 



"* !^ =^ with' that 

 end in view. 

 The first of 



these was the concert grove near the east end of the 

 lake. The great breadth of bare ground or pavement, 

 unavoidable wherever large crowds gather frequently, 

 makes absurd any attempt to simulate natural scenery 

 in such a place, and in the design of the concert place 

 a grove of formally planted trees with architectural 

 accessories was made upon gently rising ground, 

 arranged radially at one side of a little bay in the lake, 

 upon an island in which the bandstand was to be placed. 

 Upon another side of the bay a large concourse for car- 

 riages was also provided, and in connection with the 

 formal treatment of the concert-grove was built a 

 shelter, a restaurant and a terrace overlooking the main 

 drive. While the grove was still so young as to be 

 unattractive, a bandstand was erected in a natural 

 grove near the Nethermead, a place in which the intri- 

 cate woodland scenery with its brook and pools and 

 shrubbery, and the correspondingly intricate arrange- 

 ments of narrow paths and bridges, bridle-path and 

 drive, were unfitted for accommodating a large crowd. 

 Here the people are now drawn in thousands, on foot, 

 on bicycles, in automobiles, and on horseback, all tramp- 

 ling about together, making bare earth where the 

 grass and bushes once grew, and blocking the narrow 



