The F.xedra on the Bowling Green 
THE GARDEN OF “ WELD” 
UPON THE ESTATE OF CAPTAIN LARZ ANDERSON, AT BROOKLINE, MASS. 
Designed by CHARLES A. PLATT 
“ A GOOD soil, salubrious and fertile, 
l\ neither sandy nor clayey, proper for 
gardens, exempt from inundations and earth¬ 
quakes, and distant from stagnant waters and 
falling mountains”: these conditions made, in 
the opinion of an ancient writer, an appropri¬ 
ate situation for a work of architecture. Gar¬ 
dens being, then, always companions to the 
edifice, the dictum may be applied to these 
alone when they are so elaborate and formal 
as to constitute of themselves a work of 
architecture. Situation, so fundamental in 
the aspect of all 
places,is, in the case 
of gardens, their 
condition, their dis¬ 
tinction and their 
charm. The choice 
of a site is the first 
word of Art asking 
a first aid of Nature; 
and when fixed 
upon, situation firm¬ 
ly besets the think¬ 
ing architect. There¬ 
in must the ele¬ 
mental forms of his 
imagination take 
shape,tobe afterward 
given reality, detail, 
ornament and color. No garden builder, 
however, can lay claim to have fully pro¬ 
vided what his site entirely lacked; and 
whether it be in the Old World or the New, 
the impression made by garden artifice is di¬ 
vided in the mind of the beholder with that 
of the natural environment. How vital to 
the effect of gardens in Italy is their setting! 
The spirit of the Villa d’Este, at Tivoli, fol¬ 
lows its noble view out over the Campagna as 
readily as the overgrown alleys and crumbling 
water courses within. Pliny’s garden gave 
him no more pleas¬ 
ure than did its situ¬ 
ation. And earlier 
yet, the Greeks 
proved the value of 
a site in extending 
the southern wall of 
the Acropolis to re¬ 
ceive their Parthe¬ 
non. 
It is with an 
acropolis, indeed, 
that we may com¬ 
pare the site occu¬ 
pied by the gardens 
of “Weld,” at 
Brookline, Mass., 
built for Larz An- 
THE PATH THROUGH THE GROVE 
i°5 
