Editor's Introduction xxxi 



realized his ideas with such force and vividness 

 that w^hen he finally executed them the excel- 

 lence of his work was so evident that except in 

 minor details it has remained unmolested until 

 the present time. It is not always' so with great 

 places. Repton built Bulstrode for the Duke of 

 Portland in 1 8 1 o and gives an elaborate map of 

 it as one of his important works, yet Prince 

 Piickler notes in one of his letters that, at that 

 time, in 1829, it had been pulled to pieces and 

 the ground ploughed up. We can all remember 

 instances of a similar kind. It may be possible, 

 and even probable as already noted, that the land- 

 scape art of the park at Muskau may have been 

 of such evident excellence that, as the estate passed 

 from one owner to another, being at present in 

 the possession of Hermann von Arnim-Muskau, 

 each one has instinctively kept intact its essential 

 beauty. For similar reasons. Central Park, New 

 York, has acquired and retained defenders who, 

 amid the continued storm and stress of the attacks 

 from all sorts and conditions of men, have man- 

 aged to keep its landscape soul alive down to the 

 present day. Quite otherwise than with a paint- 

 ing the park or estate must display the finest kind 

 of art or it will not find the doughty defenders 

 needed to resist the enemies that will be sure to 

 rise up on every side from the midst of good 

 people who really think themselves the best of 

 friends. Nor do degeneration and destruction of 

 parks result generally from neglect, as in the 

 case of Babelsburgh, near Potsdam, much of the 



