The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1884-06-01
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
TIE EAST END.
OF Chimbersxc and Marshall Parks, and
Suggestions About the soldiers Home.

Something About the Picturesque Features
OF Chimberaze and Niarshaii Parks, an'
Suggestions About the soldiers Home.
To the Editor Of The Dispatch'
Those of our citizens who appreciate
beautiful scenery and happy exhibition
of works Of nature and art would be repaid
for ride any morning or evening OF this
delightful season around and through
Chimboraze aud Marshall Parks. We can
sneak confidently and without fear OF dis
appointing any, however fastidious IN mat
fers OF location. scenery, and prospect.
let them accept our invitation and see
what inspiring admiration follows.
Our faithful City Engineer has so far
advanced these works 10 completion Tin
Gliding The roadway or drive around the
base of these parks) rs TO show the admira-
Bile designs for public comfort In this
norton Of the city that we learn were so
largely his planning and conception.
Passing along Broad street over the deep
rayine that has now been filled across lin
which is located the famous Bloody-Run
spring that once furnished by pipe service
a considerable portion Of the city with
pure water you immediately enter the
iconderfm Chimborazo Park. We say
wonderful, and we mean il, for its eleva-
ton and surrounding slopes and wales,
and the green sward-covered table-land
that caps its almost mountain height,
looking down upon the abyss and
plains below, all give to It q peculiar
grandeur for low-land prospect.
Here the weary will be tempted 10
halt and partake OF relaxation, the
scientist and scholar 10 pause for con-
temptation. and the maiden and lover TO
abide and feast on the harmony and beauty
that nature has pictured in perspective
poetry. Ii is quito improbable that like
combination OF natural grandeur and
beauty is TO be found within fifty miles
OF Richmond. Aye, more: we lately heard
a citizen OF experience, judgment, and
taste say that he CHANGED recently to visit
ChimboraZo. and was surprised at the In
teresting character and beauty OF the
scene before him, and when he SAID il pre-
sented 10 his mind features sublimely
suited to a park that he questioned il the
country could anywhere else produce,
said TO myself here is one intelligent citi-
zen OF Shockoe Hill bearing witness TO the
merits Of this remarkable addition 10 the
attractions OF Richmond that many have
not become acquainted with.
Entering the park, you pass over firm
and even road-bed around its upper mar
gin, with all earthly objects planted far be-
low YOU or in the distance yelled. A bold
river, its vessels OF commerce, and rail-
roads and trains mapped in view, strike
you with delightful emotions. Advancing
TO the eastern extremity OF the park, you
enter the new roadway, which Though not
entirely completed is quite passable) winds
around the declivities OF Chlmborazo and
Marshall Parks. BY gentle slope you
reach what was once "Grfiin's Spring."
In lot OF ground formerly delight
fully shaded with beech and other
trees, in which the volunteer COM
panies IN ante-belIum days met to have
their social repasts on commemoration oc-
casions. Continuing your drive or ride,
you pass westwardly by assembling
curves, with the river and harbor all the
while in view, over the southern end OF
the great Chesapeake and Ohio railroad
tunnel, and within q few feet OF the cap
stones that surmount the arch to this
entrance TO il. Turning around due south
you pass alongside the bluff projecting
from the hill lying southwark from Mar
shall Park that Immediately overlooks the
shipping; and, as If you were suspended
between the dwellings and gardens above
and the shipping and warehouses below,
you may fancy something ethereal bearing
you up and on, till you reach the
street.car sheds at the foot Of Main
street. Here, by pleasing curves, you as
cend into Marshall Park, reaching an ele-
walton corresponding TO ChimborazO.
Contiguous to Chimborazo we have the
charming valley Of Gille's creek, with its
numerous branches and ravines commune
eating, fringed with yerdure and mantled
with forest growth. Away in the distance
the quiet country lands and trees and
homes OF the husbandmen are pensiyely
mirrored to our vision. These, all grouped
into view, combine a galaxy of enchanting
scenery that is rarely TO be met with.
As the Soldiers Home is in cCntempla-
ton, it will likely occur to those intelli-
gent and Observing managers OF this laud-
able enterprise that this section would be
most suitable for the building Of an insti-
tuition where inmates could have access
with the public to ChimboraZo Park. On
the western slopes Of the valley OF Gillie's
creek the grounds for cultivation are to
the south, and are protected from the north
winds. and favor the earliest growth OF
vegetation. Here once was Rennle's Gar
den, and here sunrise kisses the first dawn
OF day. {.