The American Garden. 



Ko/. XII. 



JUNE, 1891. 



No. 6. 



THE GARDENS OE NEWPORT— I. 



EW PLACES, probably 

 none in America, have 

 so many extensive villa 

 grounds and delightful 

 gardens as Newport, 

 Rhode Island. This 

 little city by the sea en- 

 joys a world-wide dis- 

 tinction as a watering 

 place, though it has 

 few great hotels, and is 

 visited by no such crowds, during the season, as are 

 found at many less prominent seaside and moun- 

 tain resorts. As if by common consent, the town 

 has been selected as a place of summer residence 

 by many of the wealthy and cultured classes of 

 the great cities ; and these have done, and are still 

 doing, much to increase its attractions and promote 

 its prosperity. The old town is quaint and perhaps 

 dull, but rich in historic treasures and local tradi- 

 tions ; the new is a grouping of cottages and villas, 

 substantial, costly and ornate; and for nothing is it 

 more admired than for its trees, its shrubs and its 

 flowers. 



As the city is situated on an island, and favored 

 with perceptible influences from the Gulf Stream — 

 which is said to approach nearer to this point than 

 any other on the New England coast — the climate 

 is soft and the atmosphere humid, affording, in 

 this respect, conditions most favorable to the perfec- 

 tion of lawns and the growth of vegetation in gen- 

 eral. Many of the estates include several acres, 

 divided between the closely shaven grass, the beds 

 of flowers and the borders of shrubbery and trees. 

 The town is largely built upon a terminal strip of 

 land, from one to two miles in width, and jutting 

 out into the sea; so that between the ocean on the 



one side, and Narragansett Bay on the other, the 

 winds from every point of the compass come 

 freighted with the influence, not to say fragrance, 

 of the salt water. On the ocean frontage are the 

 famous Newport cliffs, which extend from the bath- 

 ing beach, iu a southerly direction, nearly two 

 miles, to a point where the shore line turns sharply 

 and extends westerly. These cliffs are rocky and 

 abrupt, and are said to be the highest to be found 

 on the mainland coast between Florida and Maine. 

 Bellevue avenue, the chief pleasure drive, runs 

 nearly parallel with the cliffs, and a part of the 

 distance but a few hundred feet therefrom ; and in 

 this space are located many of the finest and most 

 extensive villas in the city. It was once supposed 

 that trees and shrubs could not be successfully 

 grown in such an exposed locality, but the contrary 

 is now fully demonstrated, as the finest gardens in 

 Newport, with all their wealth of native and exotic 

 plants, are to be found in such high and exposed 

 situations. 



In writing of the Newport gardens, one is em- 

 barrassed by the abundance of material at liand 

 rather than from its paucity ; and the more so as 

 the collections, especially of the hardy sorts, are 

 made from all parts of the world. It is on this 

 class of shrubs and trees that the landscape artist, 

 in almost every case, now relies for the best as well 

 as most permanent effects ; and in doing so he has 

 his reward. The old topiary methods are wholly 

 avoided, and in passing through many of these 

 grounds the visitor is more impressed with thoughts 

 of the forest than of beds of flowers. It would not 

 be just to say that the methods are not artificial, for 

 such gardening would be impossible. But the art 

 and skill employed have been put to their best in 

 copying nature in her multiform variations, and 



