Ill 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
PROPOSED IMPROVEMENT for MOUNT ROYAL PARK 
PLAN FOR IMPROVEMENT OP FLETCHER'S FIELD, MONTREAL. 
R. A. Outhet, Landscape Arch. 
The plan for Fletcher’s Field, 
Mount Royal Park, Montreal, shown 
herewith, was prepared ^by R. A. 
Outhet for the Civic Improvement 
Committee of the Province of Que- 
bec Architects’ Association, and the 
aim has been to harmonize it with the 
original plans for Mount Royal Park, 
prepared by the late Frederick Law 
Olmsted. 
It is recommended that Durocher 
street, Oxenden avenue, and Univer- 
sity street, be extended, so as to 
wind round as shown on the plan, 
in order that the sides of the Park 
will be bounded by streets. 
The plan further shows University 
street extended to connect with Park 
avenue and the proposed new Boule- 
vard at the Circular “Place” thus ob- 
taining an additional entrance to the 
Park. 
At the junction of the proposed 
Boulevard and the Incline Railway, 
is shown a circular “Place” in the 
centre of which it would be desirable 
to erect a handsome fountain. 
The ground to the east of Park 
avenue is laid out as a playground. 
The three rows of trees shown would 
form an effectual screen between the 
playing fields and the houses facing 
towards the Park. The spaces be- 
tween the trees are designed for ten- 
nis and bowling, and the outer play- 
NATURE AN 
It is as true today as it was a decade 
ago when “Garden and Forest” said: 
“Those who make public parks are 
apt to attempt too much and to in- 
jure not only the beauty, but the prac- 
tical value of their creations by load- 
ing them with unnecessary and costly 
details. From the time when land- 
scape gardening was first practiced as 
a fine art to the present daj^ park 
makers have been ambitious to change 
the face of Nature — to dig lakes where 
lakes did not exist and to fill up lakes 
where they did exist, to cut down nat- 
ural hills and to raise artificial ones, 
to plant in one place and to clear in 
another, and generally to spend money 
in construction entirely out of propor- 
tion to the value of the results ob- 
tained. 
“The best art is simple in its ex- 
pression, and the highest form of art 
in gardening is perhaps that which, 
taking advantage of such natural con- 
ditions as it finds, makes the best of 
them with the smallest expenditure of 
labor and money. Simplicity of design 
means not only economy of construc- 
ing-fields for football, lacrosse and 
cricket. These outer fields are sep- 
arated by rows of trees which would 
afford shade for spectators and serve 
to keep the players within their own 
boundaries. 
A new Road is shown winding up 
towards the Park Road from the 
Central Circular Place; by this 
means, pleasure vehicles and pedes- 
trians can enter the quiet of the park 
sooner and get away from the traffic 
tion, but, what is of even more impor- 
tance, economy of maintenance. The 
importance of making it possible to 
keep a great park in good condition 
without excessive annual expenditures 
for maintenance is a simple business 
demonstration. Yet park makers, with 
their unnecessary walks and drives, 
with their expensive buildings which 
are always getting out of repair; their 
ponds, in which there is rarely water 
enough to keep them fresh; their 
brooks, which are frequently dry ; their 
elaborate planting schemes often ill- 
suited to the positions where they are 
wanted, make parks expensive to con- 
struct and impossible to maintain in 
good condition, especially in this coun- 
try,, where the cost of labor is heavy 
and there is difficulty in obtaining un- 
der existing municipal methods skilled 
and faithful gardeners to keep any- 
thing like an elaborate garden in good 
condition. The most superficial ex- 
amination of any of our large urban 
parks will show that wherever elabo- 
rate construction and planting have 
been attempted they have failed from 
of Park avenue and the Cemetery 
Road at the same time, obtaining a 
grade which is not excessive. 
The crossing of Mount Royal av- 
enue Vith Park avenue is accentuated 
by a circle. 
The plan in general is prepared for 
the purpose of making the first 
glimpse of the Park at the junction 
of Park and Pine aves., in keeping 
with the great beauty of this famous 
Mountain Park. 
subsequent neglect to produce the 
effects expected from them, and that 
broad, quiet, pastoral and sylvan fea- 
tures are the only permanent and real- 
ly valuable ones we can hope to at- 
tain in our great city parks. 
“It is needless, perhaps, to repeat 
what has been said so often in the 
columns of this journal, that, in our 
judgment, the greatest value and only 
justification of great urban parks ex- 
ist in the fact that they can bring the 
country into the city and give to 
people who are obliged to pass their 
lives in cities the opportunity to enjoy 
the refreshment of mind and body 
which can only be found in comnlun- 
ion with Nature and the contemplation 
of beautiful natural objects harmo- 
niously arranged. Parks have other 
and very important uses, but this is 
their highest claim to recognition. If 
it is the highest duty of the park 
maker to bring the country into the 
city, every road and every walk not 
absolutely needed to make the points 
of greatest interest and beauty easily 
accessible is an injury to his scheme. 
D ART IN PARK MAKING 
