166 



PARKS AND PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



Sect. II. Street Gardens. 



AHiedj in some respects^ to public parks, are the 

 gardens wliicli are formed in squares and other open 

 places in towns and in front of streets. These grounds, 

 however humble they may seem, are very beneficial to 

 the population around them ; and they ought, therefore, 

 to enter more into our street arrangements than they do 

 at present. They serve to spread the inhabitants of 

 large cities over a wider surface, they increase the purity 

 the air, and act, in short, as miniature parks. The square 

 and the street with gardens in front, judging from their 

 paucity in most towns, do not seem to be so popular 

 places of residence as they ought to be, and we cannot 

 altogether wonder that this should be the case. Most of 

 them are extremely ugly, particularly when viewed from 

 the street. The objects there presented to an observer 

 are an iron railing of affected finery, with a hue of 

 trees hanging over it, dirty rickety shrubs below them, 

 patches of red earth partially covered with straws, — in 

 short, a whole exhibiting a miserable aspect of squalor 

 and discomfort. As to the plan, the dominant tj^e 

 invariably requires a belt of trees and shrubs round the 

 inside of the railing, and a circle in the centre ; the latter 

 figure, however, occasionally giving place to a statue or a 



garden, about twelve acres in extent, round Gwynn's Institution, 

 at Londonderry, — an institution for tlie maiatenance and educa- 

 tion of orphan cMldren. There is also a small farm attached, ia 

 which, as well as in the groimds, many of the children are trained 

 to rural labour, and so fitted to become useful members of 

 society. The enhghtened hberality which has tiniformly cha- 

 racterized this institution has rendered it a blessing to the poor, 

 which is highly and deservedly appreciated by ah classes in the 

 maiden city. 



