public parks 269 



imagination which these smiling landscapes have 

 given and will continue for ever to give to all the 

 people, it is not too much to say that Downing takes 

 rank among the greatest benefactors to his country 

 which this century has produced. " 



Largely as a result of Downing's writings in the 

 Horticulturist and in his books and letters elsewhere, 

 the idea gradually secured recognition that New York 

 needed a large public park. In selecting a site there 

 was much discussion, and at first Jones's Woods on the 

 East River in the neighbourhood of 66th Street was 

 chosen. It is not sure that in view of later develop- 

 ments better boundary lines might not have been ob- 

 tained at the time than those of the present Central 

 Park; and that brings us to the importance of giving 

 most careful and intelligent consideration to the choice 

 of public park sites. Let us see what Mr. Olmsted says 

 on this subject. No one could speak with greater weight 

 of authority than he did. This is what he says in 

 Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns in dis- 

 cussing two different types of grounds for park sites : 



"We want a ground to which people may easily go 

 after their day's work is done, and where they may 

 stroll for an hour, seeing, hearing, and feeling nothing 

 of the bustle and jar of the streets, where they shall 

 in effect find the city put far away from them. We 

 want the greatest possible contrast with the streets 

 and the shops and rooms of the towns which will be 

 consistent with convenience and the preservation of 



