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scenery is, first, an improvement of the turf, and, secondly, greater 

 space, so that the observer may not see all the boundaries of free 

 sunlight before him at a glance. The former requirement is certainly 

 within our power, all that is needed to secure it being the drainage, 

 deep tillage and enrichment of the soil, and the substitution of 

 finer grasses for the present coarse grasses and weeds. Something 

 may be done also with regard to the second, by cutting in upon the 

 borders of the woods, where the ground lies in gentle slopes, leaving 

 only the finer trees to stand out singly, or in small groups, upon the 

 turf to be formed upon the new ground thus obtained. Were this 

 done, however, the open space would still be comparatively an un- 

 important one in relation to the whole park. The. observer would 

 take it all in at a glance, and if this were all he felt that he could 

 look for, the result would be tantalizing rather than satisfactory. 



As a very important suggestion springs from this observation, 

 we shall be pardoned for referring to a portion of the Central Park, 

 New York, where somewhat similar conditions formerly existed, and 

 where our views have been adopted and realized. Entering by the 

 turn to the right, at the Merchant's Gate, in a few moments the 

 visitor's eye falls upon the open space called the Cricket Ground, 

 where originally was a small swamp, enlarged at great expense in the 

 construction of the park, in order to meet a similar artistic purpose 

 to that above explained, by the removal of several large ledges of 

 rock, and now occupied by an unbroken meadow, which extends be- 

 fore the observer to a distance of nearly a thousand feet. Here is a 

 suggestion of freedom and repose which must in itself be refreshing 

 and tranquilizing to the visitor coming from the confinement and 

 bustle of crowded streets. But this is not all. The observer, rest- 

 ing for a moment to enjoy the scene, which he is induced to do by 

 the arrangement of the planting, cannot but hope for still greater 

 space than is obvious before him, and this hope is encouraged, first, 

 by the fact that, though bodies of rock and foliage to the right and 

 left obstruct his direct vision, no limit is seen to the extension of the 

 meadow in a lateral direction ; while beyond the low shrubs, which 

 form an undefined border to it in front, there are no trees or other 

 impediments to vision for a distance of half a mile or more, and the 

 only distinct object is the wooded knoll of Vista Rock, nearly a mile 

 away, upon the summit of which it is an important point in the 

 design, not yet realized, to erect a slight artificial structure, for the 

 purpose of catching the eye, and the better holding it in this direc- 

 tion. The imagination of the visitor is thus led instinctively to 

 form the idea that a broad expanse is opening before him, and the 



