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by what is to be seen upon the road, than by any conscious 

 enjoyment of the inanimate nature to be seen from it; conse- 

 quently, a new class of comments upon the design are now some- 

 times heard ; unfavorable comparisons are made between the park 

 and certain foreign pleasure grounds, both with respect to the 

 lack of opportunity for enjoying the sight of a large, gay, as- 

 semblage, and its entire want of stateliness and artistic grandeur. 

 In these comparisons, and in the demands which they suggest, 

 there are some important considerations which are generally over- 

 looked. 



In Southern Europe, where the ground is parched, and turf and 

 delicate low foliage withers, unless carefully and laboriously 

 watered and tended ; where also, in most cases, rambling in the 

 country, or beyond the outskirts of towns, is not only toilsome 

 but dangerous ; where ladies seldom go out of doors until after 

 sunset, unless closely veiled ; and where the people look for amuse- 

 ment almost exclusively to social excitements, public pleasure 

 grounds have usually been important, chiefly as places of rendez- 

 vous and general congregation. Their plans hare been character- 

 ized by formal and stately plantations, and much architectural and 

 floral decoration. Where anything like landscape effects have been 

 attempted to be added to these, it has generally been, not as an in- 

 vitation to exercise, but simply as a picture usually of a romantic 

 and often of a distinctly theatrical character. 



The primary and avowed object of such grounds is to supply 

 people with accommodation for coming together to see one 

 another, not merely as personal acquaintances, but as an assem- 

 blage. 



A style of laying out grounds adapted to this purpose has, till 

 recently at least, prevailed, not only in Italy, Spain, and Portugal, 

 but throughout France, and where French influence has been strong, 

 the woods and lawns of both public and private parks and chases 

 are nearly always traversed by straight avenues, with well-defined 

 circular carrefoures, often emphasized by architectural objects at 

 their points of junction, as may be seen in the Bois cle Boulogne. 

 While, however, the custom of out-door assemblage, and of the 

 promenade for recreation has been maintained, and has even become 

 more important, a tendency to a different style in the preparation of 

 pleasure grounds has been growing wherever the climate admits of 

 its being adapted with success. The changes made in the plan of the 

 Bois de Boulogne under the late Empire, those also in the Bois de 

 Vincennes, the Pare de Monceau, and other grounds in France, and 



