New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-19
NEW PUBLICATIONS
PARKS AND GARDENS IN CITIES.


W ROBINSON, f. l.. s. London John Murray -'0"
YORK scrbner Wexford Co.
If one of the old KnickeTbOckeTs who nseu " h""'
the once breezy and outrageous Battery AT e'ei'io
and chat with his aristOGatic neghbors WHO
the adjacent mansions, could 'eVls,V 49,.
Island we can imagine the shock his local attachien'
would receive in finding the shSdy ana sea
rendezvous familiar 10 his eyes ana he'i i'Il- " -
fury ago in it, present dilapdated anu loiiOI
dItion the stately ems OF the Cl'S io1Pi'' -:
leyeld with the dust TO gyepace to tail warehouses;
the pleasaut tree-lined City Hall ParK tdnS,oinio"
into a rude and broken tIorougltare anu 'ho oou''
Al ., Iobns Park whose remarkable variety OF
- % solected and arranged by the Swiss nat
lie Simoad transformed into huge railway
aonot with bronze altar set mp to that genius OF
,uoyvess which is fine melancholy ideal OF American
life But all his sad reflections would vanish at the
Central Park where the desecrated rural features OF
old New-York sIe, rs it were, reconstructed ana
concentrated on a scale commensurate with tine
growth and prosperity Of the city, OF which II Is the
redeeming feature. What the Central Park is TO
our citizens to-day the gardens OF Paris
have been to the French people for many years
Familiar as we with them In the Renaissance OF
,rayeIo and tbe record of literature when separated
from the other features ofsParis and brought before
rs together by a skillful pen and pencil we realize
apev how much they have to do with the local
attractions Of the French metropolis and what pro-
life source of enjoyment, health and, we might say
virtue have been and are these Gases IN the great
desert of artificial and material life. Taken tOgether
they combine an extraordinary amount ana
onaIity of hygienc and aesthetic influences,
from flowers to architecture and from
natural history to horticulture. Parks have been
called the lungs of cities, and whoever has looked
out of the bow-wndOw of Samuel Rogerss break
fast-room upon the grass, trees, and BIRDS Oh Oh
James's Park turning from the intellectual least
within to the natural charms without, in the heart
of muItitudinous dingy and busting London, can
not fail to have felt the intimate relation between
the conservation of such demesne in the midst or
in the neighbOrhood of cities, TO the best social
culture and the most lie Ultimate ciyilizng agencies.
In describing the parks, pTOmenades, and gardens OF
Paris Mr.. Robinson discusses the economy and the
practical science involved in such municipal pro
visions aud privileges he compares the means and
methods with those familiar in England and thus fur
niShcs useful suggestions and desirable information
The house through whom this handsome Lon
don volume is published IN this country
have rendered a seasonable as well as taste
full service to the public by bringing the work
promptly before them. 1t treats of great mu-
nicipa economy, and one at present occupying
large and prominent space in the estimation Of all
public-spirited American citizens Brooklyn has but
recently naugurated her park Boston is determined
70 have one finding her famous Common no
longer adequate to her aspiring civic needs Balti-
more has had the good fortune find noble private
domain with all the material requisites for public
par-and both in the initiation of these resorts. and
the embellishucnt and regulation Of those which
already exist The history, condition and culture OF
the parks and gardens of Paris will prove eminenty
suggestive. They all discussed in this octave OF
over 600 pages Sud with more than 400 illustrations
From Lord Bacon to Ruskm the charm and value OF
urban gardens and parks have been eloquenty adyo-
Gated: and even a cursory examination of this ele
gaut volume not only impresses us anew with the
beauty and utility of these salubrious and refining
features of great city, but gives new sense of
the conservative worth thereof Paris is no longer
the curious, quaint and picturesque French metrop-
oils described by the old English writers and
familiar TO the American visitor of the days of
Franklin: it is grand cosmopolitan rendezvous
where a Russian cook. a German composer Polish
bootmaker, an English jockey, a Swedish Prinad
donna. and an American spendthTift, find prosperous
scope: with the squalid streets and dingy rOOkeres
If tho era before the Empire, have disappeared
much that was national IN life and clarac-
ser, and now it is not local individuality but
eclectic representative character which distinguishes
Paris; the city has become new, elegant gay busy
center OF modern civilization, where the material
tendencies of the age eliminate and triumph But
In the parks and gardens we still find the traits and
traces of national life; under the grand old oaks at
FODtainebleau i'll the garden Of the Luxembourg,
amid the Spring blossoms around the Tuieries, and,
IN some phases of the Champs Elys6es still meet
the French clementm ITS original emphasis with the
"touch of nature here and there encountered, we
recognize the individuality of the old city. It's rural
features stn distinctive and forever benign, and
-..NlU Il If. "a.
20 authentic and pleasing manner as in this vol
ame, by The wolf known correspondent of The London
Times for the horticultural department, who en-
congged in hS present undertaking ny the success
OF his previous treatise on French horticulture
Some future Buckle, III Analysing the latent
elements of local civilization. will ascrbe no small
agency to Metropolitan parks and gardens in mod
ifying the material influences of city life in the
nineteenth century. II needs not the supreme devO
ton to the sentiment Of Nature of Wordsworth,
the patient local study of such amateur SGrdHt as
White Of Selbome, 10 appreciate the moral value
and auspioous effects of these fresh and free re-
sources 60 human beings in populous cities pent'
We are apt TO associate the extensive
parks of large modern towns almost exclusively
with the fashionable hGbitS6iwho at certain hours
there display their extravagant equipages and
fashionable tOilcttes, and with the weekly holiday
there enjoyed by the working class; but 1t may be
doubted if the best enjoyment of these urban prvi
leges are not realized by that large intermediate
class, who resort to the public gardens and prone
Dades in the intervals of professional labor and
mental toll and deliberately and Systematically
seek and find there recreatve physical exer
cise by equestrian pedestrian means, at the
same time fully absorbing the aesthetic charms
of an open landscape wOodland,S meadow, pure
air and unimpeded horizon. To such the park is
11,a rarfiaf bnl
ters in luxembourg or at Fontaneblean theOver-
worked lawyer or weary man of letters VINO etrolls