Public Parks. 21 



acres. Philadelphia has lately received as a " Christmas gift" from 

 Jesse George and his sister, Rebecca George, eighty-three acres, 

 known as " George's Hill," on the west side of the Schuylkill. With 

 these additions it will not be presumptuous on the part of Philadel- 

 phia to claim that no city of this continent, and probably of the 

 world, has more natural advantages and unsurpassed beauty than 

 are included within the limits of Fairmount park. 



WASHINGTON. 



Recently, considerable attention has been paid to the improve- 

 ment and care of the grounds attached to our colleges, hospitals, and 

 other public buildings. We are greatly indebted to the late Downing, 

 for the taste and skill displayed in the arrangement of the public 

 grounds at Washington, particularly those of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tute and LaFayette Square. The grounds of the Capitol and those 

 of the White House have long been favorite promenades. 



The project of a new mansion for the President, and of the estab- 

 lishment of a great National Park, has been frequently agitated, while 

 the engineer officers have already examined the topography of the 

 country adjacent to Washington for this purpose. Mr. Corcoran has 

 otrered to donate a large tract of land upon certain conditions. It is 

 thought that at least 1,800 acres of ground lying east of Rock Creek, 

 and north of Columbia College, will be selected, as it is well adapted 

 by nature for the purpose contemplated, and can be improved at 

 comparatively small expense. 



It has also been proposed to make this park a working model of 

 the United States, "to delineate, if not reproduce in miniature, the 

 topography of the Continent ; to set Huron and Ontario in reduced 

 scale upon a living map some two miles long, not in water colors, 

 but in the element itself; to lead a toy Mississippi from its baby 

 nursery through a little continent to a small Gulf of Mexico. The 

 St. Lawrence and the Colorado, and all other great rivers, are to be 

 represented by mimic streams, and all the States and Territories are 

 to be represented, preserving their relative position and proportion. 

 It is also proposed that museums shall be erected upon each of these 

 little representative tracts, and the States and citizens shall be invited 

 to contribute to their cabinets, specimens of the natural and artificial 

 productions of the States represented." 



I hope that nothing of the kind will be attempted, for it will most 

 surely result in failure, as landscape gardening cannot be successfully 



