Formal Gardening 



harmony of effect can be complete without 

 it, and its introduction would ruin the 

 place. The only right theory is that no 

 theory is always right — that good sense 

 and good taste must dictate the specially 

 appropriate solution for each special prob- 

 lem. 



I may say, however, that as a rule Amer- 

 ican country houses of the typical kind do 

 not need terraces as much as they are needed 

 by the characteristic English house. Our 

 piazzas play, to a great extent, the role 

 of architectural terraces. Once, we know, 

 they were merely elongated sheds and had 

 little artistic significance of any kind. But 

 to-day, with their foundations of brick or 

 stone, their parapets or balustrades, and their 

 dignified flights of steps, they are really cov- 

 ered terraces, and may enable us often to 

 dispense with an actual terrace where other- 

 wise it would be essential. 



If our architects fully understood their 

 opportunities they would naturally decide 

 such points as these. But the Capitol at 

 Washington is a striking instance of the 

 fact that a landscape-architect may have a 



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