The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-02-14
mature to Advantage Dressed"

Landscape moulders moved to the
use OF their pleasant profession as
literary material will not go far
wrong II. seeking an example, they
follow that OF SAMUEL. PARSONS in The
Art Of Landscape Architecture put
nams), an inRscape whose every pros
poet pleases. For rulebooks on vista.
contour. tree and flower culture, drain
age and so on, the hunt must run an
other course; even in his photography
Mr.. Parsons inclines toward the
aesthetic result rather than to the
specific means OF Its attainment, he
Is a guide to good taste. a stimulator
OF the appreciation OF beauty. He has
assembled a remarkable body Of quo
tation. literary as well as technical.
and his illustrations by text and
camera are highly effective Nebuchad-
nezzar's hanging gardens, Kubla
Khan's palace grounds In Xanadu,
Milton's Eden, the Washington home
at Mount Vernon. an estate at New
burgh. Central Park, Kinglake's
"Eothen." Jefferies's Field and
Hedgerow." Washington irving,
Goethe and such old but not outgrown
Ter G7S5-1S71) and Thomas Whately.
uncle of Richard the Archbishop:
these are his delightful collocations.
The spice Of protest is impaired by
revolt against the modern tendency
to make art. not nature the predomi-
nant element in landscape "architec-
ture": THE art OF landscape archi-
lecture is not subject 10 the appliCa-
ton of hard and fast rules as IA science
would be-" "Of late years horticulture
has developed so rapidly that in the
desire to display novel and beautiful
plants the real essence of landscape
gardening has been allowed to escape
IKE lost fragrance"
Chinese landscape gardening is very
old; Japans. borrowed and adapted
from ChinaS, almost equally so. John
La Farae poted fundamental csncep-
lions of a sort Of landscape gardening"
among the savages of Fiji. In ancient
Egypt. Greece and Italy the art was
bound by rigid rules Of design: Nero
and Pliny located their villas in ro-
mantle spots, but the grounds were
artificial and stiff" though in some in
stances planting was done in way to
assist while preserving the charm Of
free nature" Tacitus praises the
lawns and lakes and groves" of
Nero Formally prevailed through
the Middle Ages and to the seven
tenth century. About 1880 the Jesuit
father Attiret wrote home a formula =
ton OF the practices Of Chinese gar
deners and the Dutch gardener
Koempfer analysed those Of japan. In
100 Wnateiy noted. Tie English
attempt to humor nature. the French
attempt to hide her" Horace Wal
pole declared that POPE Contributed
to form the taste OF William Kent
I6S4-l74S), who 'lcaped the fence and
saw that all nature was a garden
Shenstone, Gray, Cowper and Addison
knew and praised the art. French writ
ers dipped into its philosophy. In gar
dening Versailles Louis XIV. was
governed by considerations of expense
when he chose lie Notre az "archi-
tect"; a rival bidder for the honor
was Charles Dufrcsny l64S-l724
natural son Of Henri ". and garden
er's daughter. who combined oddly his
two hereditics, aristoCratiC and b.ur-
professional, in his work: "Hc
wanted obstacles to overcome and
raised a mountain on the plain" There
was the paternal ambition urging on
the gardeners daughters sons natural
"knack.' In Germany Hirschfeld was
the mid-eighteenth century apostle OF
| the modern art. These specialists
may have been more limited than are
their brethren Of to-day in the detail
OF garden and lawn. but the actua
art work" the d sign rs hardly finer
than that of Humphrey Repton Cdicd
/ 1879 and Prince Pucklcr is still d
| classic.
Does landscape gardening, NOR,
| than landscape painting, impose upor
| its practitioners the discipline oi
restraint and humility? ITO know
and conquer nature, yet keep hel
| character intact is the motto, II tn,
| painter Of Landscape gets Off more
! easily than its architect" ii may y,
because canvas and pDint are cheaper
and more mobile than land ana trees
| The architect" cannot easily erase hi!
! false strokes. lie deals with the sam,
things that occupy the painter, con
tours, masses, color, line and light
rhythm, balance, contrasts that en-
phasize harmony. MIR. Parsons rake
a proper pride In the directness of hi
art. whose materials are lawns ant
meadows, paths and rivers and lakes
rocks and trees and Islands.
Ii you have country estate to la!
out you will find In Mr.. Parsons
book the principles of taste by whicf
you may check up your professional