Formal Gardening 
harmony of effect can be complete without 
it, and its introduction would ruin the 
place. The only right theory is that no 
theory is always right — that good sense 
and good taste must dictate the specially 
appropriate solution for each special prob- 
lem. 
I may say, however, that as a rule Amer- 
ican country houses of the typical kind do 
not need terraces as much as they are needed 
by the characteristic English house. Our 
piazzas play, to a great extent, the role 
of architectural terraces. Once, we know, 
they were merely elongated sheds and had 
little artistic significance of any kind. But 
to-day, with their foundations of brick or 
stone, their parapets or balustrades, and their 
dignified flights of steps, they are really cov- 
ered terraces, and may enable us often to 
dispense with an actual terrace where other- 
wise it would be essential. 
If our architects fully understood their 
opportunities they would naturally decide 
such points as these. But the Capitol at 
Washington is a striking instance of the 
fact that a landscape-architect may have a 
185 
