150 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



the future wants of such a city, now, while it may be obtained. 

 Five hundred acres may be selected between Thirty-ninth-street and 

 the Harlem River, including a varied surface of land, a good deal of 

 which is yet waste area, so that the whole may be purchased at 

 something like a million of dollars. In that area there would be 

 space enough to have broad reaches of park and pleasure-grounds, 

 with a real feeling of the breadth and beauty of green fields, the 

 perfume and freshness of nature. In its midst would be located the 

 great distributing reservoirs of the Croton aqueduct, formed into 

 lovely lakes of limpid water, covering many acres, and heightening 

 the charm of the sylvan accessories by the finest natural contrast. 

 In such a park, the citizens who would take excursions in carriages 

 or on horseback, could have the substantial delights of country roads 

 and country scenery, and forget, for a time the rattle of the pave- 

 ments and the glare of brick walls. Pedestrians would find quiet 

 and secluded walks when they wished to be solitary, and broad alleys 

 filled with thousands of happy faces, when they would be gay. The 

 thoughtful denizen of the town would go out there in the morning, 

 to hold converse with the whispering trees, and the weary tradesmen 

 in the evening, to enjoy an hour of happiness by mingling in the 

 open space with " all the world." 



The many beauties and utilities that would gradually grow out 

 of a great park like this, in a great city like New- York, suggest 

 themselves immediately and forcibly. Where would be found so 

 fitting a position for noble works of art, the statues, monuments, and 

 buildings commemorative at once of the great men of the nation, 

 of the history of the age and country, and the genius of our high- 

 est artists ? In the broad area of such a verdant zone would grad- 

 ually grow up, as the wealth of the city increases, winter gardens 

 of glass, like the great Crystal Palace, where the whole people 

 could luxuriate in groves of the palms and spice trees of the tropics, 

 at the same moment that sleighing parties glided swiftly and noise- 

 lessly over the snow-covered surface of the country-like avenues 

 of the wintry park without. Zoological Gardens, like those of Lon- 

 don and Paris, would gradually be formed by private subscription 

 or public funds, where thousands of old and young would find daily 

 pleasure in studying natural history, illustrated by all the wildest 



