129 



the plan of the new park at Brussels, all show progress in this direc- 

 tion, though the liking for detached scenic effects which might be 

 suitable for framing, or for the background of a ballet, still influences 

 most French landscape work. 



It is to be observed, too, that upon the completion of the Avenue 

 de l'Imperatrice as an approach to the Bois de Boulogne, and of the 

 informal and narrow drive around the lake, with its various land- 

 scape effects, that part of this system of pleasure grounds which is 

 laid out in the natural style was immediately adopted as the daylight 

 promenade ground of Paris, in preference to the much wider, more 

 accessible, more stately, and in every way more convenient and mag- 

 nificent avenue of the Champs Elysees. 



It will thus be seen that the grander and more splendid style of 

 public pleasure grounds, while it is peculiarly adapted to display a 

 great body of well-dressed people and of equipages to advantage, 

 and is most fitting for processions, pomps, and ceremonies, while 

 also it seems admirably to extend and soften architectural per- 

 spectives, and to echo and supplement architectural grandeur, is 

 not preferred where there are moderate advantages for the adoption 

 of a natural style, even for the purposes of a promenade. The 

 reason may be that where carriages are used, in the frequent 

 passing over the long spaces of bare surface which they make neces- 

 sary, formal arrangements and confined scenes become very tire- 

 some. In passing along a curving road, its borders planted 

 irregularly, the play of light and shade, and the succession of objects 

 more or less distinct, which are disclosed and obscured in succession, 

 is never wholly without interest, while an agreeable open landscape 

 is always refreshing, in contrast to the habitual confinement of the 

 city. 



In Northern Europe congregative recreation has, until recently, 

 been a comparatively unimportant object in public parks, the popu- 

 lar idea of them being that of grounds in which people could stray 

 away from the towns, either apart or in small detached parties. The 

 difference of the two tastes and customs is shown by the fact that, 

 while, before the recent improvements, the roadways of the Bois de 

 Boulogne (although then only an occasional resort for the Parisian 

 public) were nearly a hundred feet wide, with clean-cut borders, the 

 principal promenade drive of London, though right in the midst of 

 the town, was, so late as twelve years ago, a mere rural road from 

 thirty to forty feet wide, encroached upon and made still narrower at 

 some points by trees growing naturally. 



If parks laid out in the manner of those of the North were at- 



