AMERICAN ESTATES AND GARDENS 



THE TERRACE STEPS. 



The Garden of "Weld," Brooklinc, Massachusetts. 



The making of Italian gar- 

 dens is the most characteristic 

 tendency of garden craft in 

 America. It is an art so refined 

 and beautiful, that is so finely 

 effective, that gives so much 

 pleasure and Assesses so much 

 absolute beauty in itself, that it 

 is no wonder our landscapes are 

 being Italianized, and our great 

 houses, when it can be fittingly 

 done, embowered in that for- 

 mal surrounding of architecture, 

 sculpture, and plants that the 

 garden makers of Italy knew so 

 well how to use. That this 



type of garden has aroused the utmost enthusiasm in this country is established by its 

 frequency, and that it has led to many very beautiful results is apparent from many of the 

 garden views in these pages. 



The Italian garden is an architectural garden that is to say, architecture, and its great 

 sjster art of sculpture, are essential elements in its design. The house and the garden exists 

 only for the house must be of an 

 art and design that will harmonize 

 with the somewhat severe forms of 

 classic art in which the Italian gar- 

 den has found architectural expres- 

 sion. The architectural setting of 

 the garden the enclosing walls, the 

 pergolas, the rest places, the seats, 

 the niches may then be as elabo- 

 rate as one chooses or as simple. 



The one quality that leads to 

 success in the making of an Italian 

 garden is harmony. Beautiful it 

 must be, but beauty is inseparable 

 from a work of art. The garden 

 must be harmonious in plan; its THE TERMINALS OF THE BOWLING GREEN. 



