156 



PARKS A?^D PLEASURE-GROUiVDS. 



adequately appreciated ; and much of the progress which;, 

 in these respects, has been made is due to the exertions 

 of the late Mr. Loudon, who, in various articles in the 

 ' Gardeners^ Magazine,^ was the first to draw public atten- 

 tion to their value. In these papers, conceived in a most 

 benevolent spirit, and expressed with much earnestness 

 of manner, the departed artist laboured to show that^ in 

 the pubhc park, the pale mechanic and the exhausted 

 factory operative might inhale the freshening breeze and 

 some portion of recovered health ; the busy shopkeeper 

 and the more speculative merchant might enjoy relaxa- 

 tion and bracing exercise in temporary seclusion from 

 then* toils and cares ; and that the family troop, the 

 children with their nurses, or the sportive juveniles in 

 the company of their staid seniors might take their walk 

 or spend their play-time apart from the bustle of the 

 streets, and secure from the accidents to which, in 

 crowded thoroughfares, they are necessarily exposed. 

 Without doubt, it is also good for the mental health of 

 those who are habituated to the wear and tear of the 

 busy haunts of men to be brought face to face with the 

 tranquillizing as well as suggestive works of God in the 

 world of nature. It is well that aU who are capable — 

 and we cannot tell how many these may be — should have 

 an opportunity to " reap the harvest of a quiet eye^^ in 

 scenes which, if not invested with all the wildness of the 

 rural districts, have yet as much of the treasures of 

 vegetable forms and colours as are accessible to the 

 inhabitants of cities without a considerable expense of 

 time and labour. Certainly the resort to such places of 

 recreation is very great. Looking to the metropolitan 

 parks of the United Kingdom, we find all classes of the 

 community, the day-tasked official, the night-worn 



