LAYING-OUT OF PUBLIC PARKS, 



161 



acres^ tliese grounds should be parks in tlie proper 

 sense of tlie word, furnislied with a few enclosures 

 for pasture, broad and well-formed walks or drives inter- ' 

 secting and sweeping round tlie wbole, large masses of 

 trees approaching at times to the character of woods, 

 together with a reserve of some acres by way of pleasure- 

 gromids or dressed grounds attached to the park. 



The buildings essentially necessary to a public park 

 are few ; in short, a house for the superintendent and a 

 cottage or two for the gate-keepers may suffice; but 

 where flower-gardening is included in the operations, as 

 it ought to be at least to moderate extent, we should be 

 inclined to insist on the addition of a small green-house^ 

 to be employed in the propagation, and in the protection 

 during winter, of those tender ornamental plants which 

 are bedded out in summer. We have already noted the 

 defect in this kind of park arising from the absence of a 

 mansion-house, and we should recommend the supplying 

 of this want by the erection in it of any suitable pubHc 

 buildings. Nothing would be more appropriate, for 

 example, than a picture gallery. Statues, too, erected 

 to distinguished citizens or other illustrious characters, 

 would find there a more suitable station and a more 

 comfortable home than in the crowded thoroughfares of 

 streets and squares, where their uncovered heads and their 

 Hmbs scantily draped in classic costume are alternately 

 soiled by dust and soot, amid all the changes of rain and 

 sunshine, of snow and thaw. Museums containing 

 objects of natural history and collections of antiquities 

 are also desirable and instructive accompaniments of these 

 places of public resort. The museum in the Peel Park 

 at Manchester is not the least interesting part of it. 

 Separate gymnasiums should be constructed for the 



