200 
PARK AND CEME^FERY. 
made for cricket or football. Cost to March 31, 
1898, $68,600. Museum, $67,000. 
Philips park is over 31 acres in extent. It is 
provided with two bowling greens, an open air 
swimming bath, gymnasia for males and females 
respectively, two small plots of grass reserved as 
playgrounds for children, and a series of ornamen- 
tal lakes. The remaining portion of the park is 
devoted to grass lawns, flower gardening, ornamen- 
tal shrubberies and woodland. From 100,000 to 
150,000 flowering plants are planted out in the 
flower beds every spring; the whole of the area is 
provided with asphalt walks. There is no provis- 
ion in this park for cricket or football. Cost to 
March 31, 1898, $98,000. 
Alexandra park is 60 acres in extent. About 
one half of the area is an open grass sward reserved 
for playground purposes, including cricket, tennis 
and cricket and football for boys up to about 14 
years of age. Gymnasia for males and females are 
provided, as well as a bowling green, and a large 
ornamental lake. The remainder of the park is de- 
voted to flower gardening, grass lawns, orna- 
mental shrubberies and woodland. The park is 
well laid out with gravel carriage drives and as- 
phalt walks. About 100,000 flowering plants are 
planted out in the flower beds every spring. Cost 
to March 31, 1898, $388,800. 
Boggart Hole Clough, some 76 acres in extent, 
of which two illustrations are given, was purchased 
by the corporation a few years ago. It is situated 
not quite a mile within the city boundaries, and is 
a beautifully romantic tract, and well suited for a 
national public park. The two views speak louder 
than words. The land cost nearly $25,000, and to 
March 31, 1898, the total charges for purchase and 
improvement amounted to about $120,000. 
Birch Fields park has an area of over 32 acres. 
It is laid out in large stretches of v/ell kept grass 
swards, with a view to giving the greatest facilities 
for tennis, cricket, football, bowling, male and fe- 
male gymnasia, etc. The whole area is surrounded 
with an ornamental border of trees, shrubs and 
flowers. Cost to March 31, 1898, $122,300. 
Gorton park is 16 acres in extent. It has bowl- 
ing green, male and female gymnasia, and the re- 
mainder is laid out for playground, cricket, foot- 
ball, etc., the whole being surrounded with an or- 
namental border of trees, shrubs and flowers. Cost 
to March, 31, 1898, $141,500. 
In all including the six parks mentioned above, 
Manchester possesses 32 parks and recreation 
grounds, including the “Brookdale Estate,” a 45 
acre private property, recently purchased, and a 
design for the improvement of which by Mr. Lamb 
and which he has kindly forwarded, has been pro- 
visionally approved. It cost $132,500 and the 
committee has voted $62,500 for laying it out. It 
lies principally within the city’s boundaries. 
The areas of the smaller parks not previously 
described range between 19 acres and the fraction 
of an acre, and are generally well distributed. 
Among the larger are; Lewis recreation grounds, 
19 acres, principally for physical recreation. Higher 
Crumpsall, 12 acres, shrubberies and recreation. 
Openshaw, over 7 acres, gravel space for recreation, 
gymnasia for both sexes, and bowling green. 
Cheetham park, over 5 acres, ornamental gardens, 
gymnasia, bowling, tennis and recreation. Ard- 
wick green, over 5 acres, similar in character to 
foregoing. Harpurhey, over 3 acres, gravel space 
for recreation, shrubberies and gymnasia. 
And these descriptions will fairly apply through- 
out the remaining tracts of the system. It will un- 
doubtedly be observed that physical exercise is 
considered of very high importance in the laying 
out of an English city’s park system, and this point 
is receiving very close consideration by the author- 
ities in this country. Physical recreation has in 
the main, both in connection with our public 
schools and public parks been neglected, or only 
an apology for such healthful requirements estab- 
lished. Of course there are some striking excep- 
tions, but physical recreation for the masses has 
been overlooked. 
On March 31, 1898, the whole system of parks 
comprised some 3263^ acres, which up to that date 
had cost the corporation approximately $1,839,500. 
Some valuable suggestions may be found in 
the following particulars regarding the Municipal 
Nursery, contributed by Mr. Lamb: “The atmos- 
phere of Manchester being so polluted, more so 
perhaps than any other city in the kingdom, with 
smoke, sulphuric acid and other chemical fumes, a 
fair amount of foliage and vegetation generally, can 
only be maintained by constant renewals and ap- 
plications. Under these circumstances the parks 
committee found it very expensive to keep the 
parks at anything approaching a medium standard 
of efficiency in respect to vegetation, and they 
therefore decided to initiate a new departure in mu- 
nicipal progress, viz: to grow their own trees and 
shrubs. For this purpose they rented a few acres 
of land from the Cleansing committee of the corp- 
oration as an experiment, the land in question be- 
ing raw bog, part of an estate purchased by that 
department lor the purpose of using up the towns 
refuse, and so well has it answered the purpose, 
that the parks department have now a nursery of 
65 acres, all stocked with hundreds of thousands of 
