The Natural Style in Landscape Gardening 



derstand them at all we must understand their love 

 of the landscape. This element has had a wide- 

 reaching influence in American life. 



This feeling, perhaps in a form of genuine hered- 

 ity, shows itself frequently in the best established 

 citizens in the midst of our most complicated mod- 

 ern civilization. Men break away from big cities 

 year by year and seek the wilderness. They go to 

 the farthest solitudes. They spend the longest va- 

 cations they can capture in hunting, fishing, tramp- 

 ing. They find a fierce joy in the wilderness. The 

 landscape to them means freedom. It means re- 

 lease from a strenuous civilization which at best 

 they find only partly good. 



All outdoor sports constitute more or less tem- 

 porary release from civilization and a return to the 

 landscape. Fox chasing, automobiling, fly fishing, 

 and the entire list of outdoor recreations belong in 

 this category. They are merely so many different 

 ways of reaching the landscape. 



Even the more socialized competitive outdoor 

 sports, such as baseball and football, are still out- 

 door sports. The baseball game would be worth- 



32 



