LAYING OUT OF GROUNDS. 189 



intelligent voters in any considerable town would 

 declare for the utility of a public park or garden ; 

 but whether their wishes can be made effective for 

 the establishment of such a result is another ques- 

 tion, and one which must drift into the arena of town 

 politics where I leave it ; proposing only to discuss 

 here some of the aims of such an endowment, some 

 of the possibilities in that direction, the conditions 

 of its success, and permanent usefulness to the 

 masses. 



Place for Parks. 



"TTMRST of all, a public park should be as near as 

 -* possible to the town ; best of all, perhaps, if in 

 the very centre of the town, or, as in the case of some 

 of the old walled towns of Europe, girting it with a 

 circle of green. I hardly think any public gardens 

 of the world contribute more to the health and enjoy- 

 ment of the adjacent population than those of Frank- 

 fort-on-the-Main, which lie all about their homes, and 

 which are planted upon the line of the old fortifica- 

 tions. Even the ill-kept walks upon the ancient walls 

 of Chester and York (in England), by their nearness 

 to the homes of the people, and by the delightful out- 

 look they offer, are among the most cherished prome- 

 nades I know. But with us, who have no girting 



