158 



PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



surprising that a discerning public was so slow to discover 

 tliat similar advantages were to be enjoyed elsewhere. 



Doubtless there were some considerable obstacles in 

 the way. Supposing, what was probably but seldom the 

 case, that the utility and desirableness of public parks 

 were clearly appreciated, it required no small amount of 

 public spirit and no inconsiderable measm-e of wealth 

 and influence to encounter and surmount the palpable 

 difficulties that stood in the way. The high marketable 

 value of lands in the vicinity of large towns, eagerly 

 taken up for the purposes of gardening or building, 

 might render their purchase almost or altogether an 

 impossibility to the local corporations. Then, too, the 

 land might be dearest at the very point where it was 

 most desirable that the park should be placed. Besides, 

 the extreme division of property often prevailing in such 

 localities sometimes renders combined action for pubhc 

 objects next to hopeless. The greater is the honom- due 

 to the communities, such as that of Manchester, that 

 have had enterprise enough to undertake, and skill and 

 vigour enough to carry through, the works which, in this 

 career of improvement, they have actually accom- 

 plished. 



The Site of the Public Park, idewed as calculated 

 to promote the health of the community, should be as 

 near the city or town as possible ; and, iadeed, its bene- 

 ficial influence would be augmented were it partially to 

 intersect the area occupied by the streets and other 

 buildings. In such a position the park would be of easy 

 access to the inhabitants, and would form a wide breathing 

 space, or lungs, as already said, preventing that dense 

 and unhealthy crowding of streets and lanes which are 

 rapidly forming in compact masses, with manifest injury 



