LANDSCAPE PARKS 30^ 



park, there is likely to be pressure brought to bear by the abutters to 

 provide for views into the park from the surrounding buildings. It is 

 almost certainly a mistake to allow this. The benefit of the view 

 accrues only to those in the houses surrounding the park ; the detri- 

 ment of the incongruous buildings visible from the landscape park 

 falls upon all the inhabitants of the whole city who use the park. 



Some people seek a landscape park for vigorous exercise in the open Park Use 

 air, walking or riding, or playing such games as are permitted. Others ^'^ jj. 

 go for quiet and rest. Some like the exhilaration of open spaces and 

 distant views, or the interest of rugged scenery. Others prefer a se- 

 cluded and retired spot, peaceful and intimate, with the small beauties 

 of ferns and wild flowers. Some people are glad to mingle with their 

 kind ; others wish to be alone. The park should offer as far as possible 

 to each man his own enjoyment. There should be different areas 

 fitted for the diff"erent legitimate park uses as well as distinguished by 

 different landscape characters. The frequenters of the park will thus 

 find a double source of sustained interest, — the possibility of various 

 enjoyments, and the studied sequence of landscape effects.* 



In our American parks, the landscape character which has proved Landscape 



in many instances to be the most readily obtainable, the most fitted y':^^^'^^^^^j. f^ 



,. , . r 1 . 11 1 • Fitted to Park 



to diverse uses, the easiest of upkeep, is a pastoral character, having Use 



much in common with the English pastoral scenery, and being in many 

 cases an adaptation of existing pasture land and meadow land and sur- 

 rounding woods to the needs of a park. (See Plates 31 and 33.) The Pastoral 

 turf carpet of the open areas, mowed or kept down by sheep, has the Landscape 

 advantage of its own beauty, of harmony with the rest of the landscape, 

 together with reasonable cheapness of upkeep and considerable resist- 

 ance to wear. The woods crowning the higher land, enframing the 

 turf areas, segregating one unit from another, — when they are made of 

 high-branched deciduous trees arranged in open groves as they may 

 be in pastoral landscape, — may endure considerable traffic among 

 them without great harm, and make pleasant resting places command- 

 ing views across the open meadows. The shrub plantings, which are 

 more difficult to maintain and to police, are chiefly used as screens, 

 along the boundary of the park or between one part of the park and 



* Cf. Chapter V, p. 71-72. 



