140 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



vided at public cost, maintained at public expense, and enjoyed 

 daily and hourly, by all classes of persons. 



Ed. Picture galleries, libraries, and the like, I suppose you al- 

 lude to ? 



Trav. Yes ; but more especially at the present moment, I am 

 thinking of PUBLIC PARKS and GARDENS those salubrious and 

 wholesome breathing places, provided in the midst of, or upon the 

 suburbs of so many towns on the continent full of really grand 

 and beautiful trees, fresh grass, fountains, and, in many cases, rare 

 plants, shrubs, and flowers. Public picture galleries, and even li- 

 braries, are intellectual luxuries ; and though we must and will have 

 them, as wealth accumulates, yet I look upon public parks and gar- 

 dens, which are great social enjoyments, as naturally coming first. 

 Man's social nature stands before his intellectual one in the order of 

 cultivation. 



Ed. But these great public parks are mostly the appendages 

 of royalty, and have been created for purposes of show and magni- 

 ficence, quite incompatible with our ideas of republican simplicity. 



Trav. Not at all. In many places these parks were made for 

 royal enjoyment ; but, even in these days, they are, on the continent, no 

 longer held for royal use, but are the pleasure-grounds of the public 

 generally. Look, for example, at the Garden of the Tuileries spa- 

 cious, full of flowers, green lawns, orange-trees, and rare plants, in 

 the very heart of Paris, and all open to the public, without charge. 

 Even in third-rate towns, like the Hague, there is a royal park of 

 two hundred acres, filled with superb trees, rich turf, and broad 

 pieces of water the whole exquisitely kept, and absolutely and en- 

 tirely at the enjoyment of every well-disposed person that chooses 

 to enter. 



Ed. Still, these are not parks or gardens made for the public ; 

 but are the result, originally, of princely taste, and afterwards given 

 up to the public. 



Trav. But Germany, which is in many respects a most instruc- 

 tive country to Americans, affords many examples of public gar- 

 dens, in the neighborhood of the principal towns, of extraordinary 

 size and beauty, originally made and laid out solely for the general 

 use. The public garden at Munich, for example, contains above five 



