222 3Lan^scape Hrcbttecture 



smothered in all manner of mixed shrubbery; the 

 grass is poor and, wherever the underlying rock is 

 near the surface, all is ugliness where once was only 

 beauty. Moreover, if the lawn were perfect and 

 truly English, how would it harmonize with the 

 pitch pine and scrub birches and dwarf junipers 

 which clothe the lands around? No, the English 

 park with its great trees and velvet turf is supremely 

 beautiful in England where it is simply the natural 

 scenery perfected; but save in those favoured parts 

 of North America where the natural conditions ap- 

 proximate those of the old country, the beauty of 

 it cannot be had and should not be attempted. 



"To be sure, the countries of the continent of 

 Europe all have their so-called English parks, but the 

 best of these possess little or none of the real English 

 character and charm. The really beautiful parks of 

 Europe are those which have a character of their own 

 derived from their own conditions of climate and 

 scene. The parks of Paulovsk near St. Petersburg, 

 of Muskau in Silesia, of the villa Thuret on the cape 

 of Antibes in the Mediterranean are none of them 

 English, except as England was the mother of the 

 natural as distinguished from the architectural in 

 gardening. The Thuret park, if I may cite an illus- 

 tration of my meaning, is a wonderland of crowded 

 vegetation, of ways deep, shaded by rich and count- 

 less evergreens, of steep open slopes aglow with 

 bright anemones. Between the high masses of 

 eucalyptus and acacia are glimpses of the sea, and 



