Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1853-11-26
lCoMMuyIC ATED.
The Grounds Surrounding the President
Mansion,

The Grounds Surrounding the Presidents
Mansion. ...
Messrs. EDITORS: Yesterday being
Thanksgiving day, / took walk through
the grounds Immediately adjoining the
President s Mansion, and on looking thence
towards the monument was forcibly re-
minded of remark of Mr.. Price in his
81 Essay on the Picturesque"-he saws
The ugliest ground is that which has
neither the beauty of smOothness and
gentle undulation, nor the picturesque
ness of bold and sudden breaks and varied
tints of soil; of such kind is ground that
has been disturbed and left IN an unfin-
ishcd state" One would think when he
wrote this, he had his eye upon the ground
that lies a cold, cheerless, fiat and dreary
waste, between the circuitous road at the
place where | stood and the banks of the
Canal, called President Square.
l learn that it is, in its present state,
about being planted with evergreens and
deciduous trees-and that within the last
two years $4,000 have been spent in
making the grounds as they now appear
-$24, ,OGO expended in changing what
was originally a comparatively healthy
and broken piece Of land into a fiat, un-
healthy, Improbable swamp no undu-
lations of suriace-no gently swelling
hills-no irregular broken mounds-no
hmpid stream nor babbling brook strug.
Cling amid rocky banks along its devious
way, draining the land and heightening
the picturesqueness of the grounds-all a
bold, bare canvaSs,-no varied outline
no tints of beauty-no light and shade
put on in preparation for the after struc-
ture and finish of the picture! And holes
are being dug in this swamp, and trees
Of all description-the tender and the
hardy-gathered and huddled together
without any regard to grouping, or Shade,
or tint, or exposure, or shelter, are to be
buried deep down into these holes, with
out proper compost to nourish or fit
mould to sustain them! Oh, shade of
Downing, could you behold what has been
done to piece Of ground, which, had
you lived, you would have made little
Eden, how would you feel We have in
the work left behind you, in Lafayette
Square, proof of your abilities, carried
out by your practical assistant and super
intendent to perfection really wonder
full for the limited means and curtailed
energy of him who has brought it to
what it is. Why not have those grounds
laid out according to the plans either of
MIR. Downing or of Commissioner Mudd {?
Why not put as superintendent of the
ground, with full powers, a man who is a
forest and landscape gardener by profess
sion-the pupil and assistant for twenty
years ofhim whose loss is national one,
and whose works adorn the banks of the
Hudson; asterisks of his ability? An
architect can plan and build mansion
a florist can ornament with flowers a gar
den planned for him--but it takes land
scape and forest gardener to plan and.lay
out grounds as these should be laid out,
giving grace and spirit and variety to ma
ture, in style commensurate with the
views and means of the country.
Is it not in the power of the President
or the Secretary of the Interior to see that
this national work is properly done-to
place over it some tried man who can
point TO the arork he has done, as an assu-
rance Of what may be expected from him.
Let either of these gentlemen whose bu-
siness it is to lock to it, stop further pro-
ceedings, till plans are examined and
scientific and practical men consulted
with. 1t is no common work. 1t is a
national undertaking and should be exc
cuted well by practical man, as it is to
be paid for by the country, that it may
be regarded with pride by every citizen
who visits the metropolis of his native
land L Of fha onfipo rvrounAo ho Iv~ -, Al