ON AMERICAN LANDSCAPE 

 GARDENERS 



♦iC^AVING in mind now what has been 

 ■I*/ ^^^^ °^ ^^^ state of criticism in land- 

 scape architecture, let us try to 

 apply our principles briefly to the work of 

 American landscape gardeners. Anything 

 which we can do now will be, of course, 

 only the most meager and fragmentary 

 beginning. To criticise the work of Down- 

 ing, for example, one ought to search out 

 carefully the few places which he designed. 

 These places should then be thoroughly 

 examined to determine what part of their 

 present aspect is due to the plans of 

 Downing, and what to the changes of later 

 gardeners. But, most of all, to judge 

 Andrew Jackson Downing fairly, it would 

 be important to look up the work of those 

 immediately inspired by him. The connec- 

 tion between Downing and Calvert Vaux 

 should be studied, but more especially 

 should the critic investigate the works of 



153 



