Art Out-of-Doors 



the term in its best sense), a franker arti- 

 ficiality. 



Almost all work is done in this manner in 

 our parks. Their driveways are not con- 

 structed like country roads of even the bet- 

 ter sort j their lawns are not left as fields 

 of untended grass : nor are their shrubberies 

 allowed to grow with the wild luxuriance 

 which is so beautiful beside a rural high- 

 way. The engineer and the horticulturist 

 show, in our parks, the highest level to 

 which modern science and art have at- 

 tained, and the architect should work in a 

 spirit similar to theirs. Structures which 

 look rough, casual, almost barbaric, and af- 

 fectedly simple, are not appropriate in a care- 

 fully tended pleasure-ground planted with 

 exotic trees and flowers, and bisected by 

 scientifically built and neatly curbed roads, 

 even though we may know that as much 

 thought and pains have been spent on their 

 construction as if the outconie had been 

 more patently artistic and refined. 



Central Park was laid out before the pres- 

 ent taste for bowlders and rough-hewn stones 

 had developed, and in it one may study the 

 196 



