House and Garden 
sharp angles are somewhat mouldered away. 
But with piazza and pergola the American 
dwelling may at once weave itself into one 
texture with the woodland. 
Quite rightly has the American gardener 
studied and made his own the classic idea of 
Italian tradition—the portions, the xystus 
and ambulatus , that Cicero and Pliny de¬ 
scribed. The similarity of conditions has 
justified the transfer and identical needs gave 
reproductions of Italian bric-a-brac seem to 
me the bane of American gardens. Young 
architects, hot from a visit to Italy, essay wfith 
enthusiastic T-square to detail Italian pal¬ 
aces, and urge their clients to complete the 
resemblance by sticking about the gardens 
fragments from Italian stone heaps—columns 
as of ruined temples, “terminal” figures, 
“ reproductions of griffins from the Louvre.” 
But all this makes a dreary stage scenery 
THE OLD GARDEN AT “AYSGARTH,” ABINGTON, PENNA. 
The Seat oj the Laie John Lambert , Esq. 
the American evolution a firm basis. Like 
the Roman of old, the American largely 
uses his country house as a refuge from the 
city’s burning heats,—as a summer lodge, 
where sheltered outdoor living will make 
the essence of life. But here a word of 
criticism. Why is it necessary to mimic 
the particularities of Italian details and to 
furnish gardens with curios as much 
as with trees and flowers ? Second-hand 
debris from European museums and abject 
that it must be nausea to live with. Surely 
the American artist can have an art of his 
own, and can make his garden-houses, foun¬ 
tains and porticoes from the resources of his 
own feeling, and as the expression of Amer¬ 
ican materials. At any rate he can do with¬ 
out the nail-parings and hair-combings of 
European styles, and can fill his gardens 
with native sculpture. 
In many of these gardens it must be con¬ 
fessed that there is too much of the archi¬ 
ll i 
