EFFIGIES AND MONUMENTS IN PARKS 



first, and that the influence of a forced site in a park where there is 

 properly no place for a statue wiU be reflected deleteriously in the 

 design or the statue placed there? 



GUARD AGAINST STATUE INVASION 



It is not intended to disparage the acquisition by a city of monu- 

 ments and statues to glorify and commemorate its past and to symbolise 

 its ideals and ambitions of the future ; but it may be safely asserted that 

 a city is becoming top-heavy with such material when the character of 

 its parks is made to suffer by the too numerous intrusion of statues. It 

 would be drastic to eliminate all statues from parks, but let us not 

 erect new ones to regret. Statues in parks may be likened to jewels, 

 they should be sparingly used; the more beautiful the park, the less 

 need is there of such adornment. It will be found, moreover, that if 

 statues for parks are considered when the parks are being first de- 

 signed, they will in nine cases out of ten take different form, place and 

 orientation and perhaps in the other case be ehminated. 



Washington is a particularly bad example of every park with its 

 own statue and sometimes with two or three extra ones, — statues 

 mostly of value for archaeological interest. It is hoped that the newer 

 cities will not emulate its example in this respect. Congress has a 

 curious habit, in passing bills for the erection of new statues, to instruct 

 the committees in charge " to select sites on the Public Grounds of 

 the District of Columbia exclusive of the Capitol Grounds and the 

 Grounds of the Library of Congress." This self -protective policy of 

 not admitting statuary into the special domains of the Capitol is an 

 advance step and perhaps in time Congress will extend its protectorate 

 over the city as a whole and Washington will cease to compete with 

 Torino, as it does at present, in being conspicuous for the number of 

 its monuments. 



A city may be conspicuous for its monuments ; it will be noted for 

 the excellence of its parks, their fountains, belle vistas, and shady 

 walks. 



184 



