that in order to command them it should not be necessary that views beyond its borders be opened the elements of which cannot be controlled, and are liable, even in the distant future, to be made inharmonious with those of the park; especially so, where such elements will have urban rather than rural associations. It is generally better, therefore, that the outer parts should be the higher, the central parts the more depressed; that the surface should be tame rather than rugged, gently undulating rather than hilly. Water is desirable, and it will be best situated where it can be seen from the greatest number of widely distributed points of view. Relatively to the residences of those who are expected to benefit by it, the park will be best situated where there can be but little occasion to make thoroughfares through it. Otherwise, the less the distance and the more convenient and agreeable the intermediate roads, the better. As roads which radiate from a town are usually more important to be kept open than those which cross them, and as land near a town is relatively more needed for other uses than that more distant, it is commonly better that the breadth of the site should increase with its distance from the nearest point to the town, as in Prospect park, Brooklyn, N. Y. In the improvement of the site, attractive and suitable scenery has to be formed, and unsuitable elements of existing scenery changed or obscured; and at the same time and on the same ground accommodations of various kinds are to be prepared for great numbers of people, many in carriages and on horseback, many ignorant, selfish, and wilful, of perverted tastes and lawless dispositions, each one of whom must be led as far as possible to enjoy and benefit by the scenery without preventing or seriously detracting from the enjoyment of it by all others. The most essential element of park scenery is turf in broad, unbroken fields, because in this the antithesis of the confined spaces of the town is most marked. In the climate of Great Britain turf will endure on favorable soils twice as much foot wear as it will in that of Paris or northern France or the United States; yet in the more frequented London parks it is found necessary to surround with strong iron hurdles the glades on which their landscape attraction is dependent. For this and other obvious reasons, a great extent of ground must be prepared expressly for the wear of feet and wheels. In the two principal recreation grounds of Paris, the woods of Boulogne and Vincennes, though both are suburban parks and not readily used by the mass of the people, the extent of such flooring, prepared by macadamizing, paving, and otherwise, is 480 acres, or ten times the whole recreation ground of Boston, “the Common.” In the Central park of New York it is 100 acres, and there is a constant public demand for its enlargement, which can only be met by reducing the verdant elements of landscape, and consequently the benefit to be obtained by the use of the park. In a public park for a city, therefore, the purpose of establishing such natural beauty as soil, climate, and topography would otherwise allow to be aimed at, must be greatly sacrificed under the necessity of providing accommodations for the travel and repose of many thousands of men and horses; and on the other hand, the extent of such accommodations must be made less than would otherwise be thought desirable, in order that the special objects of the park may be secured in a suitable degree. A plan for a park is good, indifferent, or bad, mainly according to the ingenuity, tact, and taste with which these conflicting requirements are reconciled, and to the degree in which local circumstances are skilfully turned to account if they can be made favorable, or skilfully overcome if unfavorable for this purpose. The problem is sufficiently difficult under the simplest conditions, and it is undesirable that it should be unnecessarily complicated by a requirement to provide for various purposes which have nothing in common with that of tranquillizing rest and exercise, and to which the element of landscape beauty is not essential. Soldiers, for example, drill and manœuvre, horses race, gymnasts and ball players exercise, on a piece of flat ground surrounded by buildings as well as in the glades of a wood. It is true that, when a suburban park is very spacious relatively to the number of people resorting to it for park recreation, a limited use of the larger turf areas for athletic exercises will injure it but little; but their frequent use for such purposes, especially if large assemblages of spectators are likely to be attracted, will be destructive of the value of the ground as a park, in the specific sense of the term. It is also to be considered that the proper rules and police arrangements for a park are different from those for a parade, ball, or gymnasium ground, or for a race course. Hence, when the most suitable ground near a town for these purposes adjoins that which is most suitable for a park, it is yet much better that there should be a marked division between them. Public buildings can be reconciled with the purposes of a park only in a limited degree. Ground about any building designed for an important public service should be laid out with a view, first, to convenience of communication with it; secondly, to its best exhibition as a work of architectural art. The neighboring grounds should be shaped and planted in strict subordination to these purposes, which will involve an entirely different arrangement from that which the purpose of forming a quiet rural retreat would prescribe. A similar consideration will prevent monuments and statues from being placed profusely in a park, or at all in situations where they will be obtrusive. The same cautions apply to the introduction of botanic, zoological, and other gardens. Their main object is as different from that of a park as that of a billiard room from a library. Both
