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is designed to be used by visitors only when in search of a 

 more thoroughly rural experience than can be looked for at any 

 point which furnishes accommodation for an assemblage of car- 

 riages. It is, of course, impracticable anywhere within the 

 necessary limits of a city park, to make sure that visitors shall 

 enjoy a sense of complete rural seclusion ; but the inclination 

 which influences those who are able to go far into the country 

 for recreation, is often strong with thousands who are in no 

 position to leave their business and their families. While, 

 therefore, results which would seem forced or improbable are to 

 be avoided, it is desirable to meet this requirement on a scale 

 that shall be adequate for the purpose. We, therefore, abandon all 

 idea of contrasting the publicity of the city with the privacy of 

 deep woods, mountains, lakes, and rocky fastnesses, and accept 

 another ideal altogether, that of pastoral rural life, as the most 

 valuable and universally available one for the purpose we have in 

 view. 



The development of the pastoral idea in its most favorable aspects 

 is possible in a large city park, and it is the peculiar natural advan- 

 tage of the ground under your control, that it offers an unusually 

 favorable opportunity for the purpose. A stretch of greensward a 

 mile in length, surrounded by woods, and unbroken by any carriage 

 road, should certainly offer a field of ample dimensions for an illus- 

 tration of the idea, and this Ave have in the Brooklyn Park. Thou- 

 sands of people, without any sense of crowding, stroll about the 

 level or undulating, sunny or shaded turf spaces that are to be 

 found in this strip of pasture and woodland ; and with a careful 

 arrangement of the planting yet to be done, the number of visitors 

 may be much increased, without any interference with the general 

 suggestion. 



If, as is now frequently stated in the public prints, the Brooklyn 

 Park is in some respects more attractive than the Central Park in 

 New York, it is because we have, from the outset, been sustained 

 by your board in our effort to improve a considerable portion 

 of the ground, with special reference to the development of this 

 element of pastoral effect, in the pursuit of which we have at a 

 few points made considerable changes in the surface of the ground, 

 so as to connect a series of dissevered and isolated patches of 

 comparatively level ground into one sweep of grass-land that 

 is extensive enough to make a really permanent impression on 

 the mind. Before this important feature in the general design 

 can be adequately realized by the visitor, it will, of course, be 



