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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 carriages. 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, Avho are in no position to leave their busi- 

 ness and their families. While, therefore, results which would seem 

 forced or improbable are to be avoided, it is desirable to meet this re- 

 quirement on a scale that shall be adequate for the purpose. We there- 

 fore 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 ad- 

 vantage 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 we have in the Brooklyn Park. Thou- 

 sands of people, without any sense of croAvding, 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 in- 

 creased 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 necessary that sheep and cattle should be allowed to graze 

 in the meadows; beautiful specimens of fine breeds should be selected, 

 and ample provision for their accommodation should be made in suit- 



