New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-07-22
CHARLES ELIOT.
"A MEMORIAL TO AN ACCOMPLISHED
YOUNG MAN.

CHARLES ELIOT, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
"a life simple, natural, happy and wholly
benehcent' is chroncled in the volume before
u.s. which is fathers memorial rather than
such a book the general public will demand
for information about young who died
when his work little more than begun. He
a of President Eliot of Harvard Uni
versity. who, upon his graduation from college,
in 1882, took up the profession of landscape
architect. The father traces his development
through boyhood. youth and young manhood.
the growth of his taste for the profession he
chose and of his power in it, with a touch that
perhaps none but father could give. There
are innumerable extracts from the sons letters
and papers, from his earliest years to the time
OF his early death, in 1897 at the age of thirty
seven. They show a gentle, modest nature, full
of good sense and good feeling, and wisdom and
reasonableness, Joined with enthusiasm in his
profession. The book will doubtless be accept
able TO the wide circle of the noted family to
which he belonged, but the conviction is rresis-
tible that much smaller volume would have
conveyed all that the general public needed to
know about Mr.. Eliot.
At the time he cast his lot with the art OF
improving landscape for human use and Ell :
joyment,' President Eliot calls it, the pro-
States. and there was no regular process of
preparing for it; no established school, and not
even single course of instruction. At the
Bussey Institution, connected with Harvard Uni
versity, however, Charles Eliot gained theoreti-
cal and practical instruction in several subjects
of fundamental Importance to landscape art,
and he thereafter established in the Of
fee Of Frederick Law Olmsted, in Boston. There
are interesting notes of his visit to England in
yVh he 1es Ore Os &c own,
who told him that landscape architecture
languishing IN England:
Proprietors were ali too ready to accept the
services Of nurserymen instead Of landscape
gardeners proper, and that the results of this
practice were necessarily inartistic and bad.
The nurseryman offers mis- services designer
for little or no pay, getting HIS reward from the
plants he supplies.
In London he contrasted the simple, broad
and dignified character OF Hyde Park and
Regents Park with the recent Battersea Park.
made in the American way out Of whole cloth
at great cost-with its large well outlined lakes
and big cement rockwork, with springs issuing
from the summit-the highest ground any
where about" Any unnatural treatment OF the
banks of a brook or of the shores OF a pond or
lake always distressed him. Thus he spoke OF
the water in Regents Park the miserable
ditch called the lake. with its shore wide
muddy path and an iron fence at the brick end
OF the water" And there suggestive COM
ments on many other works Of landscape art
the Continent: Wihelmshohe at Casse the
hugest work of landscape gardening" work
-'such only despot could have carried out;
the gardens Of the Petit Trianon-the best thing
he had the Continent; the famous
garden of Vallombrosa, near Cannes, with its
general effect, he found il, fantastic, STACY.
astonishing and exciting rather than useful
calming" and many other comments useful and
amusing.
large part of the book is devoted TO Mr..
Eliot's work the metropolitan parks about
Boston, a great system carried out by
mission Of which he was appointed landscape
architect in 1892. He wrote much to aid IN
forming the public sentiment that finally result
ed in ordering this work, and he did most 70
shape II in the direction IL has taken. great
number of Mr. Eliot's articles reproduced
In full. and the progress of his activities the
work is traced. II is interesting and i'm
portant record, especially for those who are
more nearly concerned with the and with
his profession.