PARK AND CEACTCRY. 
'35 
rounding population would, of course, decide what 
to go in for, but the following are specially worthy 
of consideration: — Lake for boating and bathing 
ponds; children’s playground; cycling tracks; foot- 
ball grounds; cricket-creases; bowling greens; arch- 
ery courts; quoit grounds; gymnasiums for both 
sexes, tennis lawns. 
“In the public park there are so many things 
upon which the beautiful may be expressed that the 
eye may be instructed and pleased at every turn. 
Take, for instance, the boundary fence; why always 
adopt an unbroken line of unclimbable spiked 
heads? A cheap fence can be made by introducing 
wrought-iron panels at intervals and by other devi- 
ces. Again, wrought-iron or oak entrance gates, 
of simple design, are more artistic than more elab- 
orate cast-iron ones; a simple brick or stone pier is 
also preferable to the lamp-post kind of pillar so of- 
ten met with. The shapes into which the hedges 
should be cut, and the arrangement of flower-gar- 
dens are also worthy of a little extra thought. The 
band-stand, the ‘temple of music,’ is upon this ac- 
count worthy of more becoming artistic treatment 
and better material than is usually bestowed upon 
it. Then, again, there are the fountains, drinking- 
fountains, terrace-walls, flower vases, and garden 
seats, etc., all of which may be so designed ‘that the 
sight of them may contribute to man’s mental health, 
pow'er and pleasure.’ 
“Small gardens and green spaces should invar- 
iably be treated in an architectural and formal man- 
ner; quietness of style should be their chief charac- 
teristic. In small parks of five or ten acres, foun- 
tains and architectui ally treated ponds may often be 
worked in with good effect. A wealth of flowers 
arranged in formal beds is always appreciated in 
small parks. Lawn-tennis courts and bowling 
greens, within cpaintly clipped hedges, always look 
well. Colonnades, parterres, avenues of pollarded 
limes, give grateful shade. All walks should be 
broad, especially on terraces, never less than lO feet 
on a terrace, and promenade walks never less than 
20 feet.. Shelters and band stands should be spe- 
cially designed to harmonize with other features in 
the park; high keeping and primness should always 
be associated with small parks. As a rule, parks 
and gardens of lO to 20 acres should not be cut up 
by drives, especially if in a district with a large work- 
ing-class population. Parks of this size are gener- 
ally expensive luxuries, as they are too small to 
allow of much space being allotted to recreation, 
such as children’s playgrounds or football grounds, 
without destroying its quietude; neither can any 
portion be laid off for pasturage, consequently all 
the ground requires to be kept up; but where 
cost of keeping up is not taken as a very serious 
matter, and if the neighborhood be favorable to 
plant life, it is a size which lends itself to variety of 
treatment. It is large enough to accommodate all 
sorts of good gardening, including fine terraces and 
parterres, rose bowers and gardens, gardens for 
American plants, and rock gardens for Alpines, 
ponds for aquatics, shady borders for ferns and lily 
of the valley. There is also space for fanciful alleys 
and colonnades, and for avenues, for bowling 
greens and lawn tennis creases. In such a park a 
large conservatory or winter garden would add very 
much to its attractions. This should be designed 
so as to accommodate as large a number of persons 
as possible during the show season. A park chry- 
santhemum show should be arranged for every park. 
Fine broad avenues are always appreciated. For 
this purpose limes, planes, elms, beech or sycamore 
are the best. The width of an avenue should never 
be less than 45 feet, and trees should never be plan- 
ted closer than 35 feet apart. Avenues should al- 
ways be straight. In very large parks and on level 
ground a very pleasing effect may be made by 
planting three rows of trees to either side, the first 
thorn; the second, wild cherry; the third, planes or 
sycamores. For terrace slopes, a batter to meet a 
step with 6-inch rise and a 14-inch tread is a very 
good one. Steep slopes'burn very quickly: formal 
lines should never merge into natural slopes, a def- 
inite break of some kind should always be made be- 
tween the two. 
“Most of the foregoing suggestions have been 
urged time and again by the writer when dealing 
with park committees and corporations, but in re- 
ply it has very generally been stated that the views 
here expressed show too great a confidence in the 
art perception and good feeling of those who gen- 
erally patronize public parks, such replies being 
very often backed up by numerous instances of des- 
truction, especially of verges and lawns, and in oth- 
er cases of trees and flowers. So firmly have some 
committees been impressed with this idea that it 
has led to all sorts of bad arrangements in parks 
with which the writer has had to do. At Wolver- 
hampton, for instance, a walk is to follow the mar- 
gin of the lake, because of a fear lest any turf or 
plantations which ran down to the water’s edge 
should be destroyed. After considerable study of 
the subject, the writer has come to the conclusion 
that the public value most things in proportion to 
the amount of earnest work put into them by the 
designer and craftsmen working under him. Where 
destruction takes place it is very often, “though not, 
of course, always” because the thing destroyed had 
little right to exist, or otherwise because the plan- 
ning was so bad that destruction was but the natu- 
ral consequence. 
