168 



PARKS ANB PLEASURE-GROUNDS. 



empty places, or even tlie sites of bustling markets^, 

 rather than that they should continue in that paltry con- 

 dition in which most of them actually exist. 



And yet such would be a consummation greatly to be 

 deplored. People^ while planning a section of a town or 

 city^ will think of a square with its hoped-for greenery a 

 hundred times sooner than of a place, or open paved 

 area. Dismiss the conception of a square^ and a block 

 of dense parallel streets will certainly come in its stead. 

 Probably the most imperfect square-garden is more pro- 

 pitious to health than a paved area is^ particularly in 

 the heats of summer. Besides^ the garden is a plac.e 

 of refuge and of play to the children and the juvenile 

 people of our cities. Why, then, will proprietors, after 

 they have expended many hundred pounds on parapet 

 waUs and iron railing, not go to the trifling additional 

 expense of engaging the services of a quahfied profes- 

 sional man ? The square-garden is surely not an inso- 

 luble problem, though it has its difficulties everywhere ; 

 and when it is to be formed on a dead level, and still 

 more on a slightly twisted sm-face, its natural felicities 

 are not considerable. A practised eye will at least avoid 

 conspicuous blunders. An ordinary courage might 

 suffice to make a few gaps in the encircling belt. And 

 we must add, that after a garden of any kind has been 

 formed at considerable cost, it is a self-defrauding eco- 

 nomy that grudges or mthholds the necessary mainte- 

 nance. To aiFord imalloyed pleasure, all gardens must 

 be " trim,'' to use the epithet of Milton ; and this is 

 especially true of the square or street garden, which, as 

 we have seen, is pecuharly exposed, from its situation, to 

 be soiled and tarnished. We should be disposed to 

 recommend that in such gardens a plain, quiet style of 



