A STUDY OF CONTINENTAL LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 

 By Albert D. Taylor, Boston, Mass. 



Given before the Society, with stereopticon illustrations, January 22, 



1910. 



In making a study of continental landscape gardening, one finds 

 that the field to be covered must be considered from a quite differ- 

 ent view point than would American landscape gardening be con- 

 sidered. This art as seen on the continent has flourished in varying 

 degrees of intensity for a number of centuries, and unlike the art 

 in the American field, the growth of which spans but a few decades, 

 it has not continued to develop along a consistent path for any great 

 number of years free from the impeding influences of outside factors. 

 In our own country there are a few well-known exponents of the art 

 whose dominating influences have raised it as such to the high 

 standard of today. The names of such men as Downing, Rep ton, 

 and Olmsted are those which we at once associate with its progress. 

 We need but study the lives of these men to understand thoroughly 

 the history underlying and affecting the growth of the field in Amer- 

 ica up to the present day. 



To cover comprehensively the European field in which the 

 growth has been affected in widely different ways, the student must 

 first bring to light the factors most potent in its history. I would 

 not suggest that by so doing I would advise making a complete his- 

 torical study. It is only by such an investigation that one brings 

 to light, not the names of a series of individuals, but rather a number 

 of dominating influences which have been the important factors 

 in its development. These are three in number, and may be 

 termed as: chronological, geographical, and political; each having 

 its important bearing upon the varying character of continental land- 

 scape gardening. 



To understand more clearly the meaning of these adjectives in 

 their relation to the art, we first must understand that from a chron- 

 ological viewpoint, the gardens of ancient Italy are but the fore- 



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