viii PREFACE 



esthetics ; we merely take an esthetic theory which seems — to us at 

 least — consistent and capable of general application, and use it as 

 the basis of an organization of the subject matter of the field of land- 

 scape design. 



In the light of this theory, we discuss the various materials of 

 which landscape compositions are made, and then, to make this discus- 

 sion more definite and directly useful, we treat at some length certain 

 examples of the problems of the modern landscape designer ; consider- 

 ing briefly also, in the appendix, how the landscape architect may 

 handle some parts of his professional practice, and giving a series of 

 plans of actually constructed work. 



We have chosen the illustrations primarily to show points in the 

 discussion which cannot so well be expressed in words ; also, as far as 

 we were able, consistently with their other uses, we have tried to have 

 the pictures in themselves good examples of composition in various 

 modes. We have been content to forego, in many instances, the use 

 of pictures of subjects already well covered in other books, for instance 

 gates, garden furniture, steps, fountains and so on. 



Since we intend this book to be useful also as a textbook, we have 

 made the subject-index unusually full. 



We include a list of references to the more important literature 

 of landscape architecture. Taken together with the footnotes, this 

 gives the reader an opportunity further to pursue aspects of the sub- 

 ject not treated at length in this book, or to find a statement of them 

 in the clearest or most authoritative form. 



We are well aware that no designer was ever made by the study 

 of theory alone, and that most of the essential fire of emotion in appre- 

 ciation and design is forever untransmutable into written words, but 

 there still should be a place for a theoretical conception of the subject, 

 even in the minds of the most inspired designers, and we are writing 

 this book in the hope of adding something to the clarity of this concep- 

 tion. 



H. V. H. 



T. K. 



Cambridge, Massachusetts 

 June, 1917. 



