Herbaceous Grounds and so to the east or southeast, entirely 

 by-passing the vicinity of the Museum. 



To reach the latter from this important entrance the normal 

 route is to turn abruptly to the left after crossing the two road- 

 ways and descend on a distinctly uninviting path, shut off 

 from the main body of the Garden area by a hillside rather un- 

 interestingly planted. This hill must be passed by a walk of a 

 sixth of a mile, parallel with and looking toward the automobile 

 roads and the railroad, before entering the main cross-valley 

 between the Conservatory ridge and the Museum. This valley 

 is entered at an elevation which does not present an attractive 

 or inspiring view of such landscape quality as the valley has and 

 does not lead the eye and invite the steps to the very delightful 

 region east of it. The Museum looms into view in one of its less 

 attractive aspects, but to those who are more interested in out- 

 door than in in-door matters a walk of fully a third of a mile in- 

 tervenes before they begin to find themselves in surroundings 

 which have the quality so much to be desired, upon entering the 

 Garden, that of giving immediate delight while stimulating to 

 press onward. 



This is negative criticism. To take the constructive side, 

 without pretending to submit a final solution, let us imagine 

 how a solution might be approached from the point of view, let 

 us say, of a stage manager bent upon getting certain fairly 

 definite pleasurable reactions from large numbers of people and 

 ready to spend money freely to get his "effects." 



Starting from the station of the Elevated they would be led, 

 as now, through a belt of trees rising from the low land on either 

 side of the causeway which they must traverse to reach solid 

 ground. This is the one admirable feature of the present ap- 

 proach — a sort of sylvan screen, in passing which to brush off, 

 as it were, the impressions of the utterly urban commonplace- 

 ness of the railway mechanism. The sylvan character could well 

 be more complete, more overarched and umbrageous; it could 

 well extend somewhat further along the route; and instead of 

 adhering to the boundary of the property the causeway might 

 well strike at once diagonally into it, so that the surroundings on 

 both sides would be permanently controllable. It would almost 

 certainly be made to rise on a gentle gradient so as to pass 

 across the two automobile roads, above grade, probably by an 

 arched bridge of sufficient width to carry a narrow plantation of 

 shrubbery on either side, after the manner of the bridges which 

 carry roads and paths across the transverse traffic-roads of 

 Central Park, arriving at grade upon the flatter portion of the 



[37] 



