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shall be pardoned for referring to a portion of the Central Park, New 

 York, where somewhat similar conditions formerly existed, and 

 where our views have been adopted and realized. Entering by 

 the turn to the right, at the Merchant's Gate, in a few moments 

 the visitor's eye falls upon the open space called the Cricket 

 Ground, where originally was a small swamp, enlarged at great 

 expense in the construction of the park, in order to meet a similar 

 artistic purpose to that above explained, by the removal of several 

 large ledges of rock, and now occupied by an unbroken meadow, 

 which extends before the observer to a distance of nearly a thou- 

 sand feet. Here is a suggestion of freedom and repose, which must 

 in itself be refreshing and tranquilizing to the visitor coming from 

 the confinement and bustle of crowded streets. But this is not all. 

 The observer, resting for a moment to enjoy the scene, which he is 

 induced to do by the arrangement of the planting, cannot but hope 

 for still greater space than is obvious before him, and this hope is 

 encouraged, first, by the fact that, though bodies of rock and foliage 

 to the right and left obstruct his direct vision, no limit is seen to 

 the extension of the meadow in a lateral direction ; while beyond 

 the low shrubs, which form an undefined border to it in front, there 

 are no trees or other impediments to vision for a distance of half 

 a mile or more, and the only distinct object is the wooded knoll of 

 Vista Rock, nearty a mile away, upon the summit of which it is an 

 important point in the design, not yet realized, to erect a slight 

 artificial structure, for the purpose of catching the eye, and the 

 better holding it in this direction. The imagination of the visitor 

 is thus led instinctively to form the idea that a broad expanse is 

 opening before him, and the more surely to accomplish this, a 

 glimpse of a slope of turf beyond the border of shrubs in the 

 middle distance has been secured. As the visitor proceeds, this 

 idea is strengthened, and the hope which springs from it in a 

 considerable degree satisfied, if not actually realized, first by a 

 view of those parts of the Cricket Ground which lie to the right 

 and left of his previous field of vision, afterwards by the broad 

 expanse of turf on either side and before him, which comes into view 

 as he emerges from the plantations at or near the marble archway. 



The carrying out of this most important purpose in the scenery of 

 the Central Park, owing to the rocky and heterogeneous character of 

 the original surface, involved much more labor, and a larger expen- 

 diture, than any other landscape feature of that undertaking. 



