1 8 Public Parks. 



improvement was slowly and gradually increasing, and the evidence 

 of the growing wealth and prosperity of our citizens manifested itself 

 in the increase of elegant cottages and villa residences on the banks 

 of our noble rivers, along our rich valleys, and wherever nature 

 seems to invite by her rich and varied charms. This feeling or taste 

 for improvement is contagious, and once fairly appreciated and 

 established in one portion of the country, it soon became disseminated 

 in other portions, until it has now become quite general.* 



The pi'ogress that landscape gardening has made during the last 

 twenty-five years is truly astonishing, and to no one are we so much 

 indebted as to the lamented Downing. The impress of his genius 

 is visible everywhere, and monuments to his taste and skill are to be 

 found throughout the entire land. On the Hudson are to be found 

 some of the finest specimens of the art, and nowhere in the Union 

 is it so far advanced. 



The environs of Boston are more highly cultivated than those of 

 any other city in North America ; in fact, in certain directions the 

 whole neighborhood may be considered a landscape garden. In the 

 neighborhood of Baltimore are found a number of fine old places, 

 several of them being as elaborate and magnificent as any in the 

 country. Others are to be found scattered throughout different 

 States, even in sections comparatively new, showing conclusively 

 that a taste for the beautiful in art and nature is fast being dissemi- 

 nated among the people. 



It is only a few years since the establishment of rural cemeteries 

 was commenced in the United States, owing to the crowded and 

 confined state of our burial grounds within the large cities and 

 their manifest injurious influence upon health. Such has been the 

 progress of this movement, and its importance and necessity so 

 apparent, that it has been almost universally adopted, and intramural 

 interments, under any circumstances, in many of the cities are totally 

 prohibited. As a legitimate result, arising from the growing taste 

 for landscape gardening and the promptings of affection and respect 

 for the memory of the sacred dead, we have in the United States 

 the finest rural cemeteries in the world, which we think may be 

 regarded as a sure evidence of our advancement in civilization and 

 enlightenment. 



* Tyovmm^'n " Landscape Gardening; " 



