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V

HINTS ON LANDSCAPE
GARDENING

J

Plate XXVII. Cottages in the Park of Muskau with the Village of Kobeln beyond (page 165)

Hints on

LANDSCAPE

GARDENING

By

prince \»on ^ücfeler=JÄuöfeau

Translated by BERNHARD SICKERT
and Edited by SAMUEL PARSONS

WirH ILLUSrRAriONS AND MAPS

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
Clje Kiberßttic Ipreßß CambriUjc
1917

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Piihlished June iQiy

Note

This volume, which furnishes a natural se-
quence to The Art of Landscape Gardenings
by Humphrey Repton, is the second of a series of
authoritative books to be published by Messrs.
Houghton Mifflin Company. The series was un-
dertaken at the suggestion and with the coop-
eration of the American Society of Landscape
Architects, and the writer has been asked to serve
as general editor.

Hermann Ludwig Heinrich von Piickler-Mus-
kau was the son of a Count, a Privy Councillor
of the King of Saxony. He married a lady of
rank, the daughter of the Prince Hardenburg,
State Chancellor, and one of the great statesmen
of the age. Born in 1785 in a palace of the old
town of Muskau in Silesia, about a hundred
miles from Berlin, he died, full of honors, in
1871. Pie occupied during his long career many
positions of importance in civil and military affairs,
and traveled widely over the world everywhere,
including a visit to the United States and years
of residence in England, a country he loved.

His contribution to the art of landscape archi-
tecture is large and permanent. It expresses itself
in his interesting published letters from England,
entitled Lhe Letters of a German Prince, in his
discussion of the underlying principles of land-

Note

scape gardening, and, finally, in the development
of the great estate of Muskau, to which he gave
years of personal attention. His letters from Eng-
land, which were published at the time not only
in German, but also in English and in French,
give most valuable and discriminating criticism
of landscape art, with descriptions of natural and
artificial scenery. He refers in these letters to a
great range of places, including Oxford, Kenil-
worth Castle, Tintern Abbey, Regent’s Park, Lon-
don, Eaton Hall, Warwick Castle, Blenheim,
and Buckingham Palace. Better than anything
else they give evidence of his understanding of
the art of landscape architecture during one of its
most fruitful periods. Goethe wrote at the time
that Prince Piickler’s letters were a pattern in all
that relates to landscape gardening, and “ be-
long,” he adds, “ to the highest class of litera-
ture.”

In his writings Prince Pückler not only gives
vivid concrete pictures of the great English es-
tates, he also points out repeatedly the fundamental
principles of the art of landscape gardening which
they illustrate, and on which their convenience,
beauty, and perfection depend.

The great work of art, however, to which this
talented gentleman and greatest of amateur land-
scape gardeners gave the best years of his life
was the development of his estate at Muskau. It
comprises a beautiful valley, with irregular rising
land skirting the river levels, hills supplying the
frame for his picture. He treated this private park

Note

with variety and breadth, and secured a splendid
unity of effect. In the words of the late Charles
Eliot, who visited the estate in 1886 to study it
as one of the world’s most notable examples of
landscape architecture, Piickler evolved “from
out of the confused natural situation a composi-
tion in which all that was fundamentally char-
acteristic of the scenery, the history and industry
of his estate should be harmoniously united. . . .
He would not force upon his native landscape
any foreign type of beauty; on the contrary,
his aim was the transfiguration, the idealization
of such beauty as was indigenous.” Mr. Samuel
Parsons, the editor of the present volume, refers
to Prince Piickler’s Hints on Muskau’s develop-
ment as “ so fundamental and comprehensive that
it would be difficult to find anything better of
its kind in landscape gardening literature.”

Fürst von Pückler-Muskau was not only one
of the best interpreters of the landscape art of his
time, he was also a prophet of city-planning.
More than a hundred years ago he dwelt upon
the necessity for natural and picturesque beauty
in great cities, giving as an example the open
parks and irregular streets of London.

The plates and other illustrations are a notable
part of this volume. They include not only all
the more important original plates and repro-
ductions of plans of the Muskau Estate before
and after the improvements of Prince Pückler,
but also examples of many of the great English
country places which are referred to by the au-

Note

thor. The text and illustrations combined make
a unique contribution to the limited literature of
permanent value dealing with the art of landscape
gardening.

Cambridge June ^ igij

John Nolen

Contents

Editor’s Introduction

Author’s Introduction

Part First: Hints on Landscape Gardening

Errata

Page 46, line li from bottom: For Table I read

Plate I.

Page 126, line 2: For Plate XI read Plate A.

Page 133, line 5 from bottom of text: For Theorious
read Theoricus.

Page 154, line ii from bottom: For Table XVI read
Plate XVI.

Page 159, line 12: For in the water, and (Plate XX)
read in the water (Plate XX), and.

Page 165, line 5 : For Kobeln read Köbeln.

Page 179, lines ii and 12: For finished on the map
read as it will appear when completed.

xi

I

Part Second: Description of the Park in

Muskau and its Origin hi

Index

193

Note

thor. The text and illustrations combined make
a unique contribution to the limited literature of
permanent value dealing with the art of landscape
gardening.

Cambridge June 4 igi"]

John Nolen

Contents

Editor’s Introduction xi

Author’s Introduction i

Part First: Hints on Landscape Gardening
IN General

Chap. I. T^he Laying-out of a Park 13

Chap. II. Size and Extent 18

Chap. III. Enclosure 25

Chap. IV. Grouping in General^ and Buildings 31
Chap. V. Parks and Gardens 39

Chap. VI. Concerningthe Laying-out of the Lawns

of Parks, Meadows, and Gardens 48

Chap. VII. Lrees and Shrubs and their Grouping,

and Plantations in General 58

Chap. VIII. Roads and Paths 80

Chap. IX. Water 90

Chap. X. Islands 96

Chap. XI. Rocks 100

Chap. XII. Earthworks and Esplanades 102

Chap. XIII. Maintenance 105

Part Second: Description of the Park in

Muskau and its Origin hi

Index

193

I

\

Illustrations

( The numbered plates are reproduced from the Atlas which accompanied
the original edition of the Andeutungen über Landschaftsgärtnerei, by
Prince von Pückler-Muskau. Some of the original plates are omitted as
of less interest and importance than those reproduced, but Prince Pückler' s
references to all the plates are retained in the text for the sake of com-
pleteness. )

Plate XXVII. Cottages in the Park of
Moskau with the Village of Köbeln be-
yond Frontispiece

H ERMANN Heinrich Ludwig, Prince von

Pückler-Muskau x

From the woodcut frontispiece in E. Petzold’s Fürst
Hermann v. Pückler-Muskau, Leipzig, 1874.

Magdalen College, Oxford: The Gravel
Walk from the West in 1847

From a drawing by F. Mackenzie reproduced in The
Old Colleges of Oxford, by Aymer Vallance, London,

1912.

Kenilworth Castle xviii

From an Engraving by William Radclyffe after a draw-
ing by J. V. Barber, in Kenilworth Illustrated, Chis-
wick, 1821.

Tintern Abbey xxii

From Fhe Ruined Abbeys of Britain,hy Frederick Ross.

Eaton Hall xxvi

From an old print reproduced in English Houses and
Gardens in the XV I It h and XVIIIth Centuries, by
Mervyn Macartney, London, 1908.

Illustrations

viii

Blenheim Castle: East Facade and Formal
Garden

From Country Residences in Europe and America, by
Louis Valcoulon Le Moyne, New York, 1908.

View of the Lake at Blenheim

From Country Residences in Europe and America, by
Louis Valcoulon Le Moyne.

Haddon Hall and the River Derwent

From Country Residences in Europe and America, by
Louis Valcoulon Le Moyne.

Plate I, a and b. Grass Paths for Boundary
OF Park

Goethe’s Garden House at Weimar

Redrawn from an illustration in E. Petzold’s Landschafts-
Gdrtnerei.

Warwick Castle

From an engraving by J. C. Varrall after a drawing by
John Preston Neale, in Neale’s Views of the Seats of
Noilemen and Gentlemen in England, Wales, Scotland,
and Ireland, London, 1818-29.

Bird’s-Eye View of Versailles

From Country Residences in Europe and America, by
Louis Valcoulon Le Moyne.

Plate II. View from the Front of the Cas-
tle AT Muskau, showing Effect of the
Removal of about Twenty Large Trees

A Vista in the Park of Muskau
From a photograph by Thomas W. Sears.

Windsor Castle

From a mezzotint by T. Sutherland in The History of the
Royal Residences of Windsor Castle, by W. H. Pyne,
London, 1819.

XXX

xxxiv

4

28

32

36

44

60

64

70

Illustrations

IX

Plate IV, e. Border Plantations in the Old

Style 72

f. Border Plantations after

Nash’s Method 72

Plate XLI II. A Diagram showing Arrange-
ment OF Shrubs and Herbaceous Plants 76

Plate V. Arrangements of Roads and Paths 82

Plate VI. Diagrams showing Arrangements

OF Rivers, Lakes, and Islands 92

Plate VII. A Diagram showing Different

Arrangements of Islands 98

Plate VIII. An Artificial Waterfall with

Rock Dam ioo

Two Views of the Castle and Moat at

Muskau 132

From photographs by Thomas W. Sears.

Plate XV. View of the Castle, showing
Steps with Orange Trees and the Old
Castle 152

A View of the River as arranged and im-
proved BY Prince Pückler in his Park at
Muskau 152

Redrawn from an old print.

A Rough Stone Bridge in the Park of

Muskau 156

From a photograph by Thomas W. Sears.

Plate XVIII. Viewof Meadow,Trees, River,

AND Hills 158

Plate XIX. Another View of the Castle
AND Lawn 158

X

Illustrations

Plate XX. View of Old and New Castles

AND Lake Lucie i6o

Plate XXL The Pheasantry, with the Post-

Bridge OVER THE River beyond i6o

Plate XXIV. The “Prince” Bridge over

A Ravine 162

Plate XXV. Bridge made of Oak Branches 164

Plate XXVI. English Cottage in the Park 166

Plate XXVIII. Proposed Cemetery Chapel 168

Plate XXX. River and Mill 174

Plate XXXIX. The Gobelin Colony: Cot-
tages OF THE Garden Laborers 184

Plate XL. View from the Wussina Deer

Park, Muskau 186

Plate XLI. Spruce Tree One Hundred Feet

High 188

Plate XLII. Oak Eighty-Five Feet High 188

Plate XLIV. Cottage near the Hunting

Castle 190

Plan A. The Grounds of Muskau before

THE Improvements were begun In Pocket

Plan B. The Park of Muskau with the Im-
provements MADE OR PROJECTED BY PrINCE
PÜCKLER In Pocket

I

Hermann Heinrich Ludwig, Prince von Piickler-Muskau

■S':

- v 's.<'. '■

s“ Y ■'

Editor’s Introduction

Hermann ludwig Heinrich,

Prince von Piickler-Muskau, stood in the
first rank of landscape gardeners in his day and
generation, largely because of the time and
place in which the stage for his career was set.
His endowments were remarkable, but his op-
portunities were unique. He was the son of an
ancient house in Silesia, or Lusatia, as it was for-
merly called, whose authority on the great ances-
tral estates was supreme. Tradition and aristocratic
power gave the prestige of the house a peculiar
value. The despotic power of the highly placed
land-owners of Germany had not as yet changed
in spirit from that of the eighteenth century. In
the world of thought there had been an awaken-
ing. Goethe reigned in literature without a rival
in Europe and Schiller was a poetical inspiration
for all Germany.

Piickler, the son of a Count and Privy Coun-
selor of the King of Saxony, was born in the
palace of his race in Muskau, a town older than
the Roman occupation, where his forbears had
ruled for a thousand years. In 1785, the year
of his birth, the French Revolution was not as
yet. New ideas, however, were in the air, and
Voltaire and Rousseau had succeeded in pro-
foundly modifying the spirit of the age. Yet the

xn

Editor’s Introduction

age still retained much of the time of Mme. de
Sevigne, a century before, when her letters were
circulated in the salons of the chateaux of France,
letters that forgot even to mention the fact that
outside of the windows, in near-by fields, soldiers
were slaughtering starving peasants, their coun-
trymen.

Piickler, the boy, spent four years when he
was seven with the Moravians in their Herrnhut
School at Uhyst, in the Pedagogium at Halle,
and then, after studying with a tutor for some
years, he entered the University of Leipsic in
1800. Here, he took a general course, specializ-
ing in law. Soon, however, he gave up law and
chose a military career as better suited to his en-
terprising spirit. He came to excel in physical
accomplishments and was a daring and skillful
horseman. Tales of a combat come to us, where
he, a champion, met and vanquished a French
rival, in the presence and amid the plaudits of
the assembled armies of both sides. These and
other stories serve to indicate to us his reckless
daring and energy. Later, Piickler proved him-
self a skillful and experienced officer at Antwerp
under Billow. Afterwards, under Geismar, he
was at the assault and taking of Cassel, where he
helped to capture several cannon. He received
many decorations for brilliant services and was
made a colonel. Later, he raised a regiment of
chasseurs and afterwards commanded at Bruges
as civil and military governor. In 1814, when
the Allied Armies entered Paris, he was sent by

Editor’s Introduction

xiii

the Duke of Saxe-Weimar as special ambassador
to the Emperor Alexander. Soon after this he
visited England a second time, spending a year
in that country.

During the years from i8i6 to 1822 Pückler
occupied himself with many things. He traveled
everywhere — on the European Continent; in
Africa, in Algeria, and Egypt and other places ;
in Asia and America, making notes as he traveled
and afterwards writing books. His adventures
even took the form of ascending in a balloon
with a celebrated aeronaut, a great feat in those
days. During this period came the death of his
father with whom he seems to have lived on good
terms except for the usual disagreements which
extravagant sons have with most fathers. Doubt-
less, he was many times during his travels so short
of funds as to be almost in dire want, but hav-
ing been bred a soldier and being of a high, free
spirit it is not likely that any shortage of funds
seriously troubled him.

He finally married a lady of rank, the Count-
ess Pappenheim, widow of the Count of the
same name and daughter of the Prince Harden-
burg, State Chancellor and one of the great states-
men of the age. We find Pückler at this period
of his career enjoying much society in the gay,
as well as in the diplomatic, world. In 1818, for
instance, he accompanied his wife and father-in-
law to the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. Later
he was offered an ambassadorship to Constanti-
nople and other high state employments. He,

XIV

Editor’s Introduction

however, refused them all, and sought his very
considerable estates inherited from his father.
In the course of the settlement of certain bound-
ary and feudal rights, the Prussian Government
decided to give Pückler the title of Prince and a
considerable sum of money.

For the better part of ten years he devoted
himself to carrying out his great plans for his
estates, even importing American trees for which
he had conceived an admiration during a visit
he had paid to the United States. Eventually,
however, he found his funds so much exhausted
that about 1828 he bethought himself of mak-
ing a journey again to England with an idea of
bettering his fortunes in some mysterious, whim-
sical way, but chiefly, it may be surmised, be-
cause he loved England and travel. During this
trip in 1828 his travels extended over England
and Ireland, and resulted in the instructive and
witty letters afterward published in Stuttgart
under the name of Briefe eines Gestorben (“Letters
of a Deceased Person”). They were translated
into English under the name ‘Tour of a German
Prince, etc., etc. These letters became celebrated,
indeed so much so that Goethe wrote at the time
in the Berliner Buch that Piickler’s letters had
been long a pattern in all that relates to land-
scape gardening. Goethe says, these letters “ be-
long to the highest class of literature.” As litera-
ture they certainly take high rank both for their
fine and true conception of landscape gardening
principles and for their descriptions of scenery.

Magdalen College, Oxford
The Gravel Walk from the West in 1847

/

V.,

Editor’s Introduction

XV

They possessed, moreover, a charm and wit that
recalled the touch of the incomparable letter-
writers of the eighteenth century : a century of
which Prince Piickler was a product in certain
singular ways; truly a grand seigneur with all his
large and modern ideas ; a soldier, a patriot, a
philosopher, and a humanitarian ; verily a land-
scape gardener of a most unique type! He came
back to Germany from England no richer except
in literary fame. From that time the major part
of his attention was given to the development of
his estates and to the elaboration of his notes and
maps which later he published in the form of the
present book.

Traveling he naturally could not forego, and his
advice, moreover, was sought from time to time
for the improvement of great estates throughout
Europe from the Royal Park at Babelsburgh,
near Potsdam, to the Bois de Boulogne in Paris.
In 1 845 he had largely developed his estates at
Muskau, as may be seen to-day, but he had like-
wise so completely exhausted his means that he
was at last forced to sell his beloved ancestral home
to Frederick of the Netherlands and retire to
Braunitz, a smaller estate at some distance away.
It is said that so bitter was his disappointment
at leaving Muskau, that although he lived more
than thirty years afterward he never again visited
his old home. During these thirty years he con-
tinued to improve Braunitz, to write, and to
travel, and to take part in most of the great events
of the day. In 1863 he was made a member of

XVI

Editor’s Introduction

the Prussian House of Lords (Herrenhaus), and in
1866, when eighty-one years old, he attended
the Prussian General Staff in the war with Austria.
In 1871 he died full of honors, and with the
consciousness, in spite of many failures and poign-
ant disappointments, of having made for himself
a great career. The reason for thus dwelling at
length on the career of Prince Pückler is because
it goes far to explain why he became exactly the
sort of landscape architect he was. Yet it was not,
altogether, the character of his ancestors, his en-
vironment, nor his upbringing that accounted for
Prince Pückler. He had, fortunately for him,
just the background and stage-setting that would
enable him to grace the part that circumstances
and personal taste called on him to fill : but there
was a certain fire of genius in the man Pückler
that was sui generis y something of his very own.
Like all geniuses he was of his age, and yet not
of his age. No other landscape architect ever
resembled him, or perhaps equaled him, if his
accomplishments and work are duly weighed.
He was born and brought up, it must be remem-
bered, in the eighteenth century, imbibed its
charm in his early days and kept all his life in
his words and bearing something of its savor.
He could not help being, as shown by his letters,
a delightful companion and the old-time gentle-
man. As the years passed, however, and he
breathed the air of the new century, he naturally
became inspired by its humanitarian ideas and
its broader vision. He could not help belonging

Editor’s Introduction

xvii

to the romantic school. It was in his blood : it
developed in his philosophy and in his art and
kindled into vivid life whatever he said, wrote,
and did. All his wild adventures and strange
visions and dreams, his love of Nature, his vague,
humanitarian schemes, even his somewhat high-
flown sentiments, expressed on all sorts of topics,
mark him as a type of the romantic artist. He
could, however, paint life with a broad and flow-
ing brush and at the same time with a simplicity
that explained perhaps why he was so keen and
appreciative an admirer of Mme. de Sevigne, little
as she had in common with the romantic school.
For simplicity as well as romantic fervor what
can be better than the following passage found
in one of his letters where he speaks of a lovely
lady dwelling obscurely in poverty in a remote
part of Ireland : —

I wish I could describe this sweet and lovely being
to you in such a manner as to place her visibly before
you, certain that you, like me, would love her at first
glance. But I feel that all description falls short. All
about her is heart and soul. She was dressed in black
with greatest simplicity, her dress was up to the neck
but fitting close to her beautiful form. Her person is
slender and extremely youthful, full of gentle grace, and
not without animation and fire in her movements.
Her complexion is of a pure clear brown and has the
soft polish of marble. M ore beautiful and brilliant black
eyes, or teeth of more dazzling whiteness I have never
beheld. Her mouth, too, with the angelic, childlike char-
acter of her smile, is enchanting. Her refined, unaffected
good breeding, the sportive grace of her gay and witty
conversation were of that rare sort which are innate, and

XVlll

Editor’s Introduction

must therefore please, whether in Paris or Pekin, in
town or country. The greatest experience of society
could hot give more ease and address, and no girl of
fifteen could blush more sweetly or jest more joyously,
and yet her life had been the most simple and uniform,
and her youth was rather the unfading youth of the
soul than that of the body, for she was the mother of
four children, nearly thirty, and just recovered from an
attack of the lungs which had threatened to prove fatal.
But the fire of all her movements, the lightning flashes
of her conversation, had all the freshness and all the
charm of youth, giving a resistless loveliness to the
gentleness of her nature.

Here is, doubtless, a somewhat exaggerated
picture of his imagination. An attractive woman
there was, but not just such a woman as he de-
picts her. Inspired, possibly, by some stray mem-
ory of Byron’s verses which he greatly admired,
in any case, transfusing a homely incident of his
travels with the glow of his imagination, he
simply did what he was always doing with his
landscape architecture, and often afterwards in
other ways in the changeful phases of his varied
life.

Pückler’s career in England was quite typical
of the man; going to that country to recuper-
ate his fortunes in some mysterious way, he trav-
eled like a grand seigneur in the most expensive
manner; then, when funds were short or carriage
lacking, on horseback or even on foot. His lit-
erary imagination found vent at this time in let-
ters to his divorced wife, and, strange to say,
then and afterwards his beloved companion and

Kenilworth Castle

Editor’s Introduction

XIX

confidante. These letters are truly models of epis-
tolary genius. Their descriptions of scenery are
especially fine, and one needs, fully to realize the
greatness of his literary power, to comprehend
Pückler’s peculiar value as a landscape architect.
Here is one of his descriptions: —

On two sides the eye wanders over an almost im-
measurable plain, on the other, lies Loch Corrib, a
lake, thirty miles in length, behind which are the moun-
tains of Clare and in still remoter distance the romantic
ridge of Connemara. The lake just at the middle bends
inland like a river, and its waters gradually lose them-
selves between the lofty mountains which seem to form
a gateway for their entrance. Just at this point the sun
set: and Nature which often rewards my love for her,
displayed one of her most wondrous spectacles. Black
clouds hung over the mountains and the whole heavens
were overcast; only just at this point, the sun looked
out from beneath the dusky veil and issued a stream
of light which filled the whole ravine with a sort of un-
earthly splendor. The lake glittered beneath it like
molten brass, while the mountains had a transparent
steel-blue luster like the gleam of diamonds. Single
streaks of rose-colored cloud passed slowly across the
illuminated picture over the mountains; while on both
sides of the opened heavens distant rain fell in torrents,
and formed a curtain which shut out every glimpse of
the remaining world. Such is the magnificence which
Nature has reserved for herself alone, and which even
Claude’s pencil could never imitate.

These lines purport to give simply a descrip-
tion of Nature, but at the very end Piickler can-
not help writing as a landscape architect, which
is primarily his true vocation.

XX

Editor’s Introduction

There are many fine descriptions of Nature in
the letters of Piickler, and it might be well to
quote one more as a further illustration of the
distinction of his purely literary work: —

Turn your imagination to a spot of ground so com-
mandingly placed that from its highest point you can
let your eye wander over fifteen counties. Three sides
of this vast panorama rise and fall in constant change
of hill and dale like the waves of an agitated sea, and
are bounded at the horizon by a strangely formed
jagged outline of the Welsh Mountains, which at either
end ascend to a fertile plain, shaded by thousands of
lofty trees, and in the obscure distance, where it blends
with the sky, is edged with a white misty line — the
ocean.

The peculiarity of such a description is not
only its eloquence and poetical expression, but
its real value lies in its landscape conception.
Probably no other man of Pückler’s time could
have brought together, in a single picture, just the
right elements, and grouped them in such a way
as to set before one a great landscape scene in so
fine a manner. It is a case, as may be seen over
and over again in reading Pückler’s letters, of a
landscape architect developing a great landscape
and transfusing it with the vivifying glow of his
own trained imagination. In other words, Pückler
knew just what to select from the landscape to
present its truest and most valuable character.

Prince Pückler was, however, a good deal
more than a lover of Nature in her higher moods
and a skillful artist in creating effects akin to

Editor’s Introduction

XXI

Nature’s best efforts: he was a great gentleman
with forbears of a thousand years ; he was a sol-
dier and an economist devoted to the interests
of his peasant laborers and German countrymen.
Hardly ever had the interests of one man ex-
tended so widely; certainly those of no landscape
architect. To show the diversity of his interests
I will quote a passage about Oxford : —

I have walked over Oxford and I cannot express
with what intense delight I wandered from cloister to
cloister, and refreshed myself in this living spring of
antiquity. There is a magnificent avenue of elms which
like the buildings date from the year 1520. From this
queen of avenues in which not a single tree was want-
ing, and which leads through a meadow to the river,
you see on one side a charming landscape, and on the
other a part of the city with five or six of the most
beautiful Gothic towers — ever a noble view, but to-
day rendered almost like a piece of fairy enchantment;
the sky was overcast, the wind drove the black, fan-
tastic clouds like a herd of wild beasts across it : at
length the most beautiful rainbow vaulting from one
tower and descending on another, spanned the whole
city.

Read this weird and soul-stirring description
of Kenilworth Castle: —

The day was gloomy, black clouds rolled across the
heavens, and occasionally a yellow, tawny light broke
from between them, the wind whistled from among the
ivy, and piped shrillv through the vacant windows.
Now and then a stone loosened itself from the crum-
bling buildings and rolled clattering down the outer
wall. Not a human being was to be seen; all was soli-

XXll

Editor’s Introduction

tary and awful ; a gloomy but sublime memorial of de-
struction.

There is more than the suggestion of mysti-
cism in this passage, but here is the real thing : —

I entreat you [he writes to a dear friend] , be with me
at least in thought, and let our spirits journey together
over sea and land and look down from the summit of
mountains and enjoy the sweet repose of valleys, for I
doubt not that spirits, in forms as infinitely various as
infinity itself is boundless, rejoice throughout all worlds
in the beauty of God’s magnificent creation.

A mystic Piickler always was and always re-
mained. He was always dreaming and seeing
visions. There was a touch of madness in some of
his strange fancies. The reader of his book will
remember the lake he designed which was to
rear above the surface of its waters funereal me-
morials ; i.e., rocks inscribed with names intended
to commemorate his ancestors interspersed and
surrounded by weeping willows.

For magnificence of description and grandeur
of outlook, all transfused with the magic of his
imagination, it would be hard to find anything
better of its kind than the following description
of Warwick Castle which, on account of its
length, is given only in part : —

Let your fancy conjure up a space about twice as
large as the Colosseum at Rome, and let it transport
you into a forest of romantic luxuriance. You now
overlook the large court surrounded by mossy trees
and large buildings, which, though of every variety of
form, combine to create one sublime and connected

‘.J'iUP-

T?T>Trni?'£yj

Tintern Abbey

Editor’s Introduction xxiii

whole, whose lines now shooting upward, now falling
off into the blue air with the continually changing beauty
of the green earth beneath, produce, not symmetry in-
deed, but the higher harmony elsewhere proper to Na-
ture’s work alone. The first glance at your feet rests on a
broad, simple carpet of turf around which a softly wind-
ing gravel walk leads to the entrance and exit of the gi-
gantic edifice. Look backward and your eye rests on the
two black towers of which the oldest, called Guy’s T ower,
rears its head aloft in solitary threatening majesty high
above all the surrounding foliage, and looks as if cast in
one mass of solid iron ; the other built by Beauchamp is
half hidden by a pine and chestnut, the noble growth
of centuries. Broad-leaved ivy and vines climb along the
walls, here twining around the tower, there shooting to
its very summit. On your left lies the inhabited part
of the Castle and the chapel ornamented with many
lofty windows of various size and form, while the oppo-
site side of the vast quadrangle, almost entirely with-
out windows, presents only a mighty mass of embattled
stone, broken by a few larches of colossal height, and
huge arbutuses which have grown to a surprising size
in the shelter they have long enjoyed. But the sublim-
est spectacle yet awaits you. On the fourth side, the
ground, which has sunk into a low, bushy basin form-
ing the court, and with the buildings also descending for
a considerable space, rises again in the form of a steep,
conical hill along the sides of which climbs the rugged
walls of the castle. This hill and the keep which crowns
it are thickly overgrown at the top with underwood,
which only creeps round the foot of the tower and walls.
Behind it, however, rise gigantic venerable trees tower-
ing above all the rocklike structure. Their bare stems
seem to float in midair, while at the very summit of
the building rises a daring bridge, set, as it were, on
either side with trees, and as the clouds drift across the
blue sky, the broadest, most brilliant masses of light

XXIV

Editor’s Introduction

break magically from under the towering arch and the
dark crown of trees.

Prince Piickler’s description of Tintern Ab-
bey— Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey — should
not be passed by : it is so fine : —

It would be difficult to imagine a more favorable
situation or a more sublime ruin. The entrance to it
seems as if contrived by the hand of some skillful scene
painter to produce the most striking effect. The church,
which is large, is still almost perfect; the roof alone and
some of the pillars are wanting. The ruins have received
just that degree of care which is consistent with the full
preservation of their character. All unpicturesque rub-
bish that would obstruct the view is removed without
any attempt at repair or embellishment. A beautiful
smooth turf covers the ground and luxuriant creeping
plants grow amid the stones. The fallen ornaments are
laid in a picturesque confusion and a perfect avenue of
thick ivy stems climb up the pillars and form a roof
over head. The better to secure the ruin, a new gate
of antique workmanship is put up. When this is sud-
denly opened the effect is striking and surprising. You,
at once, look down the avenue of ivy clad pillars and
see the grand perspective lines closed at the distance of
three hundred feet by a magnificent window eighty feet
high and thirty feet broad: through its intricate and
beautiful tracery you see a wooded mountain from whose
sides project abrupt masses of rock.

When it comes to landscape gardening criti-
cism, we find all through his letters passages that
abundantly prove that his mind was continually
occupied in studying his art wherever he traveled.
Here is a bit on city planning and the landscape
connected with it which might have been written

Editor’s Introduction

XXV

by some of the best authorities of the present
day: —

Faultless on the other hand, is the landscape garden-
ing part of the park [Regent’s], which also originated
with Mr. Nash, especially in the disposition of the
water. Art has here completely solved the difficult prob-
lem of concealing her operations under the appearance
of unrestrained nature. You imagine you see a broad
river flowing on through luxuriant banks, and going
off in the distance in several arms, while in fact you are
looking upon a small piece of standing though clear
water created by art and labor. So beautiful a landscape
as this with hills in the distance, surrounded by an en-
closure of magnificent houses, a league in circuit, is cer-
tainly a design worthy of one of the greatest capitals in
the world, and when the young trees are grown into
majestic giants will scarcely find a rival. In the execu-
tion of Mr. Nash’s plan many old streets have been
pulled down, and during the last ten years more than
sixty thousand houses built in this part of the town.
It is, in my opinion, a peculiar beauty of these new
streets, that, though broad, they do not run in straight
lines, but make occasional curves which break the uni-
formity.

It is interesting to follow the working of
Piickler’s mind as he studies his subject, how the
principles of his art were formulating themselves
in his mind to be afterwards realized and actually
executed on his own place at Muskau where the
result can be seen to-day. Here is some keen
criticism of English scenery: —

The beauty of the country and the extraordinary
neatness and elegance of every place through which my
road lay to-day struck me in a most agreeable manner

XXVI

Editor’s Introduction

. . . the picture has but one fault — it is all too culti-
vated, too perfect, thence always and everywhere the
same, and consequently, in the long run wearisome.
Indeed, I can even conceive that it must become distaste-
ful in time, like the savory dish of dainties to the stom-
ach of a sated man.

That Prince Pückler did not hesitate to criti-
cize the celebrated estates in England is indicated
by the following passage : —

We have hastened to see the wonders of Eaton Hall,
of which, however, my expectations have not been very
high. Moderate as they were they have been scarcely
realized. The parks and gardens were, to my taste,
the most unmeaning of any of their class I had seen,
although of vast extent.

On the other hand, here is a description in
another of Pückler ’ß letters of what he considers
an ideal park or country estate : —

Mr. W.’s park is certainly one of the most perfect
creations of that kind and owes its existence entirely to
his perseverance and good taste. It is true that he could
nowhere have found a spot on earth more grateful for
his labors, but it seldom happens that art and nature
so cordially unite. It is enough to say that the former
is perceptible only in the most perfect harmony ; other-
wise it appears to vanish into pure nature, — not a tree
or a bush seems planted by design. The vast resources
of distant prospect are wisely husbanded ; they come
upon the eye by degrees and as if unavoidably ; every
path is cut in a direction which seems the only one it
could take without constraint and artifice; the most
enchanting effects of woods and plantations are pro-
duced by skillful management, by contrast of masses,
by felling some, and thinning others, clearing off and

Sr Thomas Grosvenor Baronet ’

t

Editor’s Introduction xxvii

keeping down branches, so that the eye is attracted,
now into the depth of the wood, now above, now be-
low the boughs, and every possible variety within the
region of the beautiful presented. This beauty is never
displayed naked, but always sufficiently veiled to leave
the requisite play for the imagination ; for a perfect park
— in other words, a tract of country idealized by art —
should be like a good book, which suggests at least as
many new thoughts and feelings as it expresses. The
dwelling-house is not visible till you reach an opposite
height; it then suddenly emerges from the mass of the
wood, its outline broken by scattered trees and groups,
and its walls garlanded with ivy, roses, and creeping
plants. It was built after the plan of the possessor, in
a style not so much Gothic as antiquely picturesque,
such as a delicate feeling for the suitable and harmo-
nious conceived to be in keeping with the surround-
ing scenery. The gardens lay in all their indescribable
glow, of beauty in a narrow and fertile valley full of high
trees under which three silver springs gush forth, and
flowing away in meandering brooks took their course
in all directions amid impervious thickets of blooming
rhododendrons and azaleas.

Of Chiswick, Piickler has the following per-
tinent criticism to make : —

I found the garden much altered, but not, I think,
for the better ; for there is a mixture of the regular
and irregular which has a most unpleasant effect. The
ugly fashion now prevalent in England of planting the
pleasure-ground with single trees and shrubs, placed at
a considerable distance apart almost in rows, has been
introduced in several parts of the grounds. This gives
the grass-plots the air of nursery grounds. The shrubs
are trimmed round so as not to touch each other, the
earth carefully cleared about them every day, and the

XXVlll

Editor’s Introduction

edges of turf cut in stiff lines, so that you see more of
black earth than of green foliage and the free beauty
of nature is quite checked. Mr. Nash, however, adheres
to a very different principle, and the new gardens of
Buckingham Palace are models to all planters.

This criticism of Blenheim and the apprecia-
tion of the landscape architect. Brown, are spe-
cially interesting : —

The park is five German miles in circumference, and
the piece of water, the finest of its kind existing, occu-
pies almost eighty acres. The pleasure-grounds are on
an equally grand scale; forty men are ordinarily em-
ployed in mowing. Opposite the house the water forms
a cascade, so admirably constructed of large masses of
rock brought from a great distance, that it is difficult to
believe it artificial.

One cannot help admiring the grandeur of Brown’s
conceptions as one wanders through these grounds: he
is the Shakespeare of gardening.

Doubtless the Prince here allowed himself to
say a little more in favor of this famous place
than he would have on sober thought. It should
be remembered that Piickler was entertained in
England everywhere by the aristocracy and even
royalty in the most magnificent manner, and
consequently it is remarkable that he should have
criticized adversely any of the English estates.
Think for a moment : would any one at the pres-
ent time make a tour of American and English
estates and write in his letters as boldly and criti-
cize as pointedly as Piickler did a hundred years
ago ? Perhaps it would be healthy for the art of

Editor’s Introduction

XXIX

landscape gardening if some one, competent and
independent, would undertake to write a few let-
ters like those of Piickler.

In order to see that he was little influenced
by what he saw of Brown’s work at Blenheim,
it is only necessary to wander over the grounds
of the park at Muskau a few hours. The satiri-
cal lines of Peacock, said to refer to the art of
Brown, could hardly be applied to anything de-
signed by Piickler : —

Here sweeps a plantation in that beautiful regular
curve; there winds a gravel walk; here are parts of the
old wood left in these majestical regular clumps dis-
posed at equal distances with wonderful symmetry;
there are some singular shrubs scattered about in ele-
gant profusion; here a portugal laurel; there a spruce
fir; here a juniper; here a lauristinus; there a spruce fir;
here a larch; there a lilac; here a rhododendron; there
an arbutus. The stream you see has become a canal :
the banks are perfectly smooth and green, sloping to the
water’s edge.*

Piickler wrote also more than once in praise
of Repton’s work, and even brought Repton’s

* Headlong Hall. The Prince’s criticisms of the landscape garden-
ing of Germany are severe and the comparisons he makes with England
are much to the disadvantage of his Fatherland. However, he had great
hopes of the Royal Gardens at Potsdam, which were being laid out at
that time by the famous landscape artist Lenne, and which are to-day
the glory of Germany, and it should be said here that a few of the
strictures made by Piickler in the early part of the nineteenth century
would apply to much of the German landscape gardening of to-day. I
do not mean to imply that a large part of the landscape gardening of
Germany is not open to criticism viewed from a high artistic standpoint,
just as is that of England; but it may be fairly said that German
landscape gardening approaches that of England more nearly now than
it did in the time of Prince Piickler.

XXX

Editor’s Introduction

son from England to help him in improving
Muskau. He speaks appreciatively of many land-
scape architects and horticulturists or gardeners,
explains their ideas, and even quotes them at
length, and does not hesitate to criticize them as
he did in the case of Repton’s son. Nor did he
claim for himself any special academic standing.
He did not apparently consider himself a pro-
fessor of the art, nor did he undertake to found
any special school of landscape gardening. Rather
he felt like a great amateur who engaged him-
self in a pleasant occupation with profound se-
riousness, and faithfully devoted himself to it
because it was the joy of his life. Probably, if
he had desired posthumous fame, he would have
written more for publication. It sufficed him to
make a fine map of the park of Muskau and
describe it more or less completely and add
thereto sundry “ hints,” as he terms them,
although their character is so fundamental and
comprehensive that it would be difficult to find
anything better of its kind in landscape-gardening
literature. A quaint, original, free spirit of a man !
He did his chore in life with little regard to
fame, and none too much for rules or conven-
tions. Consequently, it is not strange that, with
his broad and almost prophetic outlook, he should
impress us as almost a man of the present day.
Certainly, as one walks and drives at the present
time around his park at Muskau, it is impossible
not to recognize the kinship of his work with
modern landscape gardening. He seems to have

East Facade and Formal Garden

Editor’s Introduction

XXXI

realized his ideas with such force and vividness
that when he finally executed them the excel-
lence of his work was so evident that except in
minor details it has remained unmolested until
the present time. It is not always so with great
places. Repton built Bulstrode for the Duke of
Portland in i8io and gives an elaborate map of
it as one of his important works, yet Prince
Piickler notes in one of his letters that, at that
time, in 1829, it had been pulled to pieces and
the ground ploughed up. We can all remember
instances of a similar kind. It may be possible,
and even probable as already noted, that the land-
scape art of the park at Muskau may have been
of such evident excellence that, as the estate passed
from one owner to another, being at present in
the possession of Hermann von Arnim-Muskau,
each one has instinctively kept intact its essential
beauty. For similar reasons. Central Park, New
York, has acquired and retained defenders who,
amid the continued storm and stress of the attacks
from all sorts and conditions of men, have man-
aged to keep its landscape soul alive down to the
present day. Quite otherwise than with a paint-
ing the park or estate must display the finest kind
of art or it will not find the doughty defenders
needed to resist the enemies that will be sure to
rise up on every side from the midst of good
people who really think themselves the best of
friends. Nor do degeneration and destruction of
parks result generally from neglect, as in the
case of Babelsburgh, near Potsdam, much of the

XXXll

Editor’s Introduction

beauty of which is the result of Prince Piickler’s
ideas and advice, but it comes from sinning against
the light by those who ought to know better.
Fortunately, if the art is really sound and true
there generally seems to be a David to come for-
ward and redeem the delectable land from the
hands of the Philistines.

The full development of landscape architecture
came late. Greek art in architecture, sculpture,
song, and the drama struck a high note which
reached almost perfection two thousand years
before the glimmerings of true landscape archi-
tecture appeared in the seventeenth century.
Nature hardly appealed to pagan artists except in
the form of a human being.

When Christ said, Consider the lilies,” he
struck a new note, which, although submerged
and lost in the monastic sterility of the Middle
Ages, began to secure recognition of its true
value in the minds of men like Du Fresny who
first applied his genius to the landscape concep-
tion of a new Versailles, which was unfortunately
not accepted by Louis XIV. All through the
eighteenth century this lily of Christ’s own
thought continued to open its petals until in the
early days of the nineteenth century, in the works
of Repton and Prince Pückler, the goodly flower
of landscape architecture appeared in full bloom.
It is not that finer trees and shrubs, better turf
and wider vistas have not obtained in later days.
That goes without saying ! It is that men have
learned how to design a landscape on natural

Editor’s Introduction xxxiii

lines, to take a terrain and study out just what it
is worth for the purpose of creating a landscape
which shall be evolved from its own peculiar
constitution and capacity for beauty. Better work
may be done and has been done; note Central
and Prospect Parks, New York City, designed
by Olmsted and Vaux. These men, as well as
Prince Pückler, also based their work on funda-
mental principles of art, and in the best land-
scape architecture of the future these principles
will not and cannot be changed, for they are in-
herent in the nature of the subject.

As an example of the way Pückler indicated
his principles of design it may be permitted to
quote a final passage from one of his letters : —

The Park at Mount B. affords a perfect study for
the judicious distribution of masses of water to which it
is so difficult to give the character of grandeur and sim-
plicity that ought to belong to them. It is necessary to
study the forms of nature for the details, but the prin-
cipal thing is never to suffer an expanse of water to be
completely overlooked or seen to its whole extent. It
should break on the eye gradually, and if possible lose
itself at several points at the same time, in order to
give full play to the fancy; the true art in all landscape
gardening.

The estimate of the genius of Pückler, enunci-
ated by Goethe nearly a hundred years ago, has
been already quoted. It would seem well to com-
pare this with the latest and most authoritative
criticism of Pückler made in one of the letters
of the late Charles Eliot, the best writer on land-

XXXIV

Editor’s Introduction

scape architecture of the present generation. He
writes as follows: Piickler “would evolve, from
out of the confused natural situation, a compo-
sition in which all that was fundamentally char-
acteristic of the scenery, the history, and indus-'
try of his estate, should be harmoniously united.”
In other words, as the same author writes farther
on, “he would not force upon his native land-
scape any foreign type of beauty ; on the contrary,
his aim was the transfiguration, the idealization
of such beauty as was indigenous.” Again Charles
Eliot writes: —

One circumstance greatly favored the accomplish-
ment of his design — namely, the very fact that he had
to do with a valley and not with a plain or plateau.
The irregular rising land skirting the river levels sup-
plied the frame for his picture: the considerable stream
flowing through the midst of the level with here and
there a sweep towards the enclosing hills, became the
all connecting and controlling element in his landscape.
Well he knew what artists call breadth and unity of
effect was fully assured if only he abstained from in-
serting impertinent structures or other objects in the
midst of this hill-bounded intervale.

With his usual disregard of difficulties, Piickler
boldly diverted the river, first into a broad lake,
then into the moat of the castle, and finally into
a brook through the garden, where, unlike the
London rivers which the poet Gray says “ only
glide and whisper,” the water dances along over
rocks and “roars gently.” This beautiful piece
of work looks so natural one cannot believe

View of the Lake at Blenheim

Editor’s Introduction

XXXV

it artificial, and that is because Pückler faith-
fully applied his principles of art, not after the
Englishman Brown’s methods, but according
to Nature’s way. This kind of boldness and
nature-wise treatment appears everywhere, as
may be seen by any one visiting the park to-day.
While one wanders around the shores of the lake
out on the lawn and passes through the garden
and across the bridge and up and up to the
heights where the remnants of the sacred groves
stand, one finally turns and surveys the scene of
“ tower and town,” castle and baths, and the smoke
of the factories, all coordinated and unified in one
great picture as far as the eye can see, five thou-
sand acres, and miles of territory. The parts are
as completely harmonized as an opera, or a song,
or a great picture.

After dwelling on this scene, are we not justi-
fied in asserting that in all essential matters Prince
Pückler has stamped “ the last word” on his park
at Muskau. There may be parks, and doubtless
are, more perfect in this or that part, but it must
be conceded by good judges that Pückler has,
in spite of his limitations, mistakes, and fail-
ures, created one of the few great parks of the
world.

The book. Hints on Landscape Gardening y
although it may seem to deal chiefly with
Pückler’s letters from England, is really a kind
of notebook rather than a formal treatise. It is,
however, very informing of the principles and
practice of Pückler in his landscape treatment

XXXVl

Editor’s Introduction

of his estates at Muskau. It is, in part, a disser-
tation occupying itself with many things be-
sides landscape architecture, but it is full of
sound ideas and suggestions. It does not devote
itself chiefly to the discussion of trees and shrubs,
as do many books of a similar kind, but it gives
you the underlying rules of the art. You will
readily excuse the digressions, which Piickler
himself deplores, when you come to study the
system of practice and the details of the plan by
means of journeys in the book which take you
miles around the park. It is doubtful whether
so extended a study of a great park was ever
written before by the man who designed the
entire scheme. The Prince did not undertake to
instruct the reader fully and completely. He
claimed to have had “a fairly long practical
experience, much careful study of practical ex-
amples combined with a passionate love of the
art of gardening in the widest sense,” all of which
enabled him, he thinks, “to give some valuable
hints and to draw up some useful rules.”

His philosophy, his art, and his poetry do
seem at times, however, to render his treatise
hardly scientific in the ordinary sense of the
term, and yet his advice is almost always sound
and sensible; moreover, with it all, he not infre-
quently drops into the frame of mind of the man
who, as the old phrase has it, “talks as he walks
and thus to himself says he.” It is simply Prince
Piickler with all that goes to make Prince Piick-
ler. He is a prince and, at the same time, some-

Editor’s Introduction

xxxvii

thing very like a socialist, and not, by any means,
always a gardener, deeply as he is interested in
horticulture. He had no desire to speak unkindly
of any one, but always his “ free spirit ” de-
manded scope of expression. Doubtless he wan-
dered far afield in his musings, but if the reader
will only dwell for a little on some of his sen-
tences that seem to him, at first, discursive and
even possibly absurd, he will finally come to find
in them food for much thought. It is the man
Piickler whom we cannot help wishing to know
quite as much as his interpretation of his art.
He was certainly a personality. Can any one re-
member as strong and interesting a personality
among landscape architects?

The author’s treatment of his subject in his
book on landscape gardening is simple. He lays
down, or rather hints and intimates, as the title
of the book indicates, principles and ideas that
should control, in chapters devoted to the laying-
out of a park, to enclosures or fences, to the lo-
cation of buildings, to the making of country
estates, to trees and shrubs and their grouping,
to roads and paths, water features, islands, rocks,
grading, maintenance; all of which are illus-
trated by examples taken from the estate of
Muskau.

He evidently did not overestimate the value of
plans, excellent as his own were, deeming them
frequently deceptive. Personal superintendence
of the work, supplementing and developing still
further the ideas of the plan, evidently for him

xxxviii Editor’s Introduction

were of prime importance. Some things he says,
about construction of roads and paths and the
management of plants, trees, and shrubs, etc.,
might well be revised in the light of the im-
provements that necessarily come with the ex-
perience of nearly a hundred years, but it is
astonishing, at the same time, to find how much
of his advice agrees with the best practice of
modern days.

Indeed, when all is said that can be said about
Piickler’s limitations, the question is still in
order, where else, except in his pages and those
of Whately, can be found an equally fine pres-
entation of the great art of landscape architec-
ture? Others writing on the same subject will
even seem to some, by comparison, dry and aca-
demic. Frederick Law Olmsted, almost alone,
has written passages that emit a like sparkle of
genius. Poetically inspired words and wit and
wisdom continually emerge from Prince Piick-
ler’s strange, mystical meditations. He cannot
help writing in this vein even on what would be
ordinarily considered quite prosaic subjects, as
shown by the following quotation : —

What the gold backgrounds of the old masters, which
set out the sweet, lovable faces of madonnas and saints
in so ideal a manner, are to religious pictures, green,
luxuriant grass spaces are to a landscape.

Here, too, is a quotation, illustrative of what
I mean, which is decidedly quaint and original
and certainly poetical, far and away different

Editor’s Introduction

xxxix

from what one would expect to find in this par-
ticular context : —

Even so one might compare a higher garden art
with music and, at least as fitly as architecture has been
called “ frozen music,” to call garden art “ growing
music.” It, too, has its symphonies, adagios, and alle-
gros, which stir the senses with vague but powerful emo-
tions, Further, as Nature offers her features to the
landscape gardener for use and choice, so does she of-
fer to music her fundamental tones; beautiful like the
human voice, the song of birds, the thunder of the
tempest, the roaring of the hurricane, the bodeful wail-
ing of branches — ugly sounds like howling, bellowing,
clattering, and squeaking. Yet the instruments bring
all these out and work, according to circumstances, ear-
splitting sounds in the hands of the incompetent, en-
trancing when arranged by the artist in an orderly whole.
The genial Nature painter does the same. He studies
the manifold material given him by Nature and by his
art works the scattered parts into a beautiful whole,
whose melody flatters the senses, but unfolds its high-
est powers and yields the greatest enjoyment only when
harmony has breathed true soul into the work.

Furthermore, it may be said, in addition to
these conclusions of Prince Piickler, that enter-
ing more deeply and widely into the heart of
Nature than either painting, music, or sculpture,
landscape architecture “is a union of many di-
verse elements, all constantly changing and act-
ing upon each other, such as we see in some fair
meadow, lit by sunshine after rain, wherein all
things, — from the chemical ingredients of the
grasses, and the lines of the flowers, to the con-
stituents of the stream that flows through it, to

xl

Editor’s Introduction

the colors of the sky and the cloud shadows, and
the songs of the birds and the humming of the
little insects, and the quiver of the butterfly
wings, — and each and all affected and affecting
each other, yet unite to create a whole which
has a deeper harmony than other arts, because it
is alive and changes in all its parts from moment
to moment.”

The age in which Pückler lived was not ex-
actly that of great or original architects. This
was the case particularly in Germany. It was the
period of learning and versatility, and was chiefly
imitative in the character of its art, and essen-
tially classic. Schinkel planned a replica of the
Parthenon at Athens to be erected in the Crimea.
It is difficult to understand how Prince Pückler
could have been so carried away by his admiration
of Schinkel whose fame has not come down to us
with any real distinction. Schinkel’s undoubted
versatility both in architecture and painting and
his great learning in Greek art gave him vogue at
the time. It is probable that many of the extra-
ordinary conceptions found in Pückler’s flower
designs, bridges, and temples, fortunately seldom
carried out, owe their objectionable features to
the influence, if not the pencil, of Schinkel.

It is seldom, indeed, that we find a landscape
architect of parts who is also a really competent
architect, and the reverse is likewise true. At
first thought, it might seem quite feasible to com-
bine the work of the two professions, but, in
actual practice, the attempt generally fails. Cer-

Editor’s Introduction

xli

tainly Le Notre did not succeed. Calvert Vaux
was a trained architect originally, but his abid-
ing reputation is entirely based on his work as a
landscape architect in designing Central Park,
New York, and other great parks of a similar
character. Mr. Olmsted, perhaps the greatest of
our latter-day landscape architects, never at any
time undertook to assume the role of architect.

On the other hand, it is doubtful whether any
eminent architect of the present day would as-
sume to lay out an entire park or country estate.
He does undertake to lay out gardens (called, it
is true, by Piickler “extensions of the house”)
with a limited measure of success, for how can
he design a garden with intelligence, without an
intimate knowledge of plants which he rarely
has. A garden should be something more than
a problem of architecture.

It may be claimed and is claimed by most
landscape architects that landscape architecture,
like all work which seeks to deal with live Na-
ture, requires unity of idea everywhere, and that,
with many differences, parks and gardens should
be considered fundamentally the same. In the
case of both gardens and parks the landscape
architect deals with simple, open spaces, and in-
tricate, complicated, crowded spaces, with high
and low trees and shrubs, perennials and bedding
plants and grasses, each requiring artistic rela-
tions, one with the other.

In reviewing the various designs of Piickler,
it is interesting to note that some of the excel-

xlii

Editor’s Introduction

lent advice that he gives is disregarded in the
actual designs that he proposes to use, and actu-
ally used, in some cases, in his park. No one, it
must be remembered, however, is entirely con-
sistent in his ideas nor is it desirable he should
be so. Certainly Pückler with his peculiar genius
could not be expected to be a paragon of con-
sistency. What Pückler writes on Italian villas
shows how instinctively his good taste leads him
to right conclusions. He says: —

In general, a certain irregularity is preferable in build-
ings in a park, as being more in conformity with Nature
and more picturesque. . . . This same principle ap-
pears in the designs of the ancient villas. . . . Traces of
this principle are also found in the Italy of the Renais-
sance, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries : buildings
half hidden by others, large and small windows on the
same face of the building, side doors, projecting and
receding corners, . . . cornice, roofs jutting out, and
balconies unsymmetrically placed, in short, everywhere
a great but by no means inharmonious irregularity,
which pleases the fancy because the reason for every
departure from regularity is evident or may be sur-
mised. The garden art of the Romans, which, through
the study of the classical writers, and especially through
the description which Pliny gives of his villa, again
came into practice in the fifteenth century in Italy, and
which has later, in the so-called French gardens, altered
into colder, less comfortable forms, deserves particular
consideration on this very point. This rich and sump-
tuous art, which may be called an extension of the art
of architecture from the house to the garden, — or, as
the English might say, the approach of the landscape
to the very doors of the house, — may be most suitably
applied to this purpose.

Editor’s Introduction

xliii

It should be said, however, that many of
Piickler’s most extravagant garden designs were
never carried out, either by himself at the time,
or by others at a later date, and to-day there is
little that is bizarre or offensive to good taste to
be seen at Muskau. The ideas of Pückler which
are essential to the development of his original
and comprehensive design’ have been unquestion-
ably, to a large extent, realized and retained.
Pückler has this paragraph in his book ; —

To avoid all misunderstanding, I repeat that, in or-
der not to break the thread of my description at every
moment, much which is only proposed has to be de-
scribed as though already complete ; and that hardly
one third of the place has been so far carried out, al-
though perhaps three quarters of the work has been
done.

The difficulties he had to overcome were enor-
mous, as explained in his journeys with the reader
around his estate.

Pückler’s passionate love of trees and his pride
in his ancestors is illustrated by the following
passage, which, on account of its peculiarly
characteristic quality, seems to demand special
mention in these preliminary pages: —

The finest forms of mountains and lakes, the bril-
liancy of the sun and sky, combined with the naked rocks
and bare lakes, cannot replace meadows and the . . .
diversified, pleasinggreen and rich foliage. Fortunate the
man to whom his forbears have bequeathed lofty woods
of old oaks, beeches, and lindens, these proud giants
of our Northern clime, standing still untouched by the
woodman’s murderous axe. He should never regard

xliv

Editor’s Introduction

them without veneration and delight, he should cher-
ish them as the apple of his eye, for neither money
nor power, neither a Croesus nor an Alexander, can
restore an oak a thousand years old in its wonderful
majesty after the poor laborer has felled it. Terrible
and swift is the destructive power of man, but poor
and weak is his power to rebuild. May an ancient tree
be to you, kind reader, who love Nature, a holy thing.

The concluding paragraph of the book makes
a fine ending to his dissertation on his much-
loved pursuit : —

For when once the landowner has begun to idealize
his property, he will soon become aware that cultiva-
tion of the soil will secure for him not only pecuniary
advantage, but also real artistic delight, and how thank-
ful Nature is to him who dedicates his powers with love.
So then, if each one does his best for his own tirelessly
and thoroughly, and the thousand facets combine easily
and well to form one ring, the lovable dream of the St.
Simonians might become true of a universal cult of our
mother earth. For this purpose, however, it would be
well to turn aside a little from these sad politics, which
absorb everything and give so little in return, and
revert a little more to happy art, whose service is in
itself a reward ; since for the ruling of the State we can-
not all strive. But to seek to improve himself and his
property is in the power of each one of us, and it is even
a question whether in such a simple manner, in honest
and homely endeavor, the so-much-desired freedom
may not be attained with more calm and safety than by
the many experiments in superficial theoretic forms of
State. For he only can be free who commands himself.

The letters from England, however, form the
best kind of introduction to the real Piickler and

Editor’s Introduction

xlv

his book on landscape gardening. There is noth-
ing more informing of the growth and the aspi-
rations and inspirations of a man than his letters
to a close friend or dear relative, and the greater
the man, the more ready, generally, and it seems
in most cases, the more able, he is to reveal
on paper his actual heart and soul, — cor ad cor

Samuel Parsons

HINTS ON

LANDSCAPE GARDENING
AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION

Author’s Introduction

Permit us to bring the beautiful also into our de-
sign: for I do not see why we should disassociate the
beautiful from the useful, for what — to come to the
point — what is useful ? Merely what nourishes us, warms
us, and shelters us from the weather ? And why do we call
such things useful? Only because they tolerably ad-
vance the welfare of mankind? Yet the beautiful ad-
vances it in a far higher and greater degree ; therefore
among useful things the beautiful is the most useful of
all. (Vom Regieren, German Memoirs^

IN the greater part of Germany, it must be
admitted, we have scarcely yet awakened to
the practical and successful pursuit of utilities, and
but few have directed their intelligence and ener-
gies, without consideration of advantage, to the
beautiful ; a general, intelligent combination of
both aims is yet rarer.

This applies most of all to every kind of landed
property, and it is certain that herein England
has advanced beyond our level of civilization by
nearly a century : what is there accomplished with
ease, here remains all but impracticable.

But it is time that our well-to-do landowners
sought a closer rapprochement with the English
system and without slavish imitation studied
rather the intention than the form, always giving
due consideration to the conditions of locality.

If I cite England as an example, it is not be-

4

Hints on Landscape Gardening

cause it is the fashion, or from Anglomania, but
from the firm conviction that England must for
a long time remain an unattainable model in the
art of a worthy, and, if the expression may be
permitted, a gentlemanly iygentlemanartigen^y en-
joyment of life, especially with regard to coun-
try life, in general “comfort” combined with the
fullest appreciation of a noble sense of beauty in
every form, as far removed from effeminate, Asi-
atic voluptuousness as from Continental squalor
and dirt, which has its origin, not in poverty,
but in bad habits and neglected household arrange-
ments.

In this higher cultivation of the pleasures of
life landscape gardening has also developed to an
extent that no period and no other country seem
to have known ; and, in spite of a generally
gloomy and sunless climate, England has devel-
oped it into the most delightful pursuit for the
friend of Nature, for the connoisseur who loves
her most when she appears in unison with the shap-
ing hand of man, as the raw jewel first obtains
its greatest beauty only through polish. I do not
by this wish to say that Nature at her wildest,
left alone to her simple, often sublime, and some-
time even awful, grandeur, may not evoke the
deepest, nay, the most religious, sentiments; but
for lasting welfare human care and intelligence
are indispensable. Even in painted landscape, we
demand something which reminds us of human
effort, — as we say, to animate it. Yet a far
greater variety is required in real, than in painted.

Haddon Hall and the River Derwent

Author’s Introduction

5

landscape, and it is much more agreeable, as well
as beneficial, to the feeling human heart when,
as in England, we can admire in Nature, almost
everywhere idealized by art, not only the palaces
and gardens of the great in their pride and mag-
nificence, but also, in harmonious wholcy the modest
dwellings of small farmers laid out with as much
charm, and finished as completely. For they
also, like the proud castles, peep sweetly out from
primeval trees or repose on gay meadows, sur-
rounded by blossoming shrubs, and show with
equal clearness, by appropriate form and sober
cleanliness, the delicate taste of their owners.
The poorest can deck his straw hat with flowers
and tend, after his daily work, a well-kept garden,
however small, where naught but velvet lawn
grows, “ ’midst rose and jessamine odors.”

Must we not be filled with a real sense of
shame when we look for a counterpart here and
still find the greater part of our country seats
whose chief view looks on the manure heap, at
whose gates for the greater part of the day swine
and geese disport themselves, and whose interiors
can show, as an attempt at cleanliness, only com-
mon boards strewn with sand?

I have frequently seen in my Fatherland in
North Germany very well-to-do persons, owners
of hundreds of thousands of marks, living in such
pseudo-castles — mansions, as they called them —
as an English farmer no doubt would without
hesitation have taken for stables.

Is such a place the seat of a gentleman? A

6

Hints on Landscape Gardening

property embellished by the cabbage garden,
usually close to the house, with at the most a few
carnations and single lavender plants surrounding
his onions and beet roots; alleys of crooked fruit
trees sadly hemmed in by cabbages and turnips !
Should a few old oaks or limes from his fore-
fathers’ day have withstood the tooth of time,
then the good husbandman seldom fails to rob
them of their foliage for his sheep, so that they
stand there like naked victims, stretching out
their branches to heaven, as if for vengeance.

Yet more painful is it when the owner, bitten
by the fashion, has conceived the notion of
laying out his gardens in so-called English style.
The straight roads are then turned into cork-
screw forms which are just as mechanical, ser-
pentining in the most tedious manner through
young birches, poplars, and larches, and gener-
ally either impassable after every shower from
mud, or in dry weather making the visitor wade
perspiring through loose sand, A few exotic
shrubs, which grow badly and are much less
beautiful than native ones, are planted, mixed
with young firs on the borders. After a few years
they encumber the ground, have to be lopped,
later on lose their lower branches, and thus pre-
sent to our view only bare stems with the naked
earth between, while on the spaces left open the
badly nourished grass and stumpy exotics give a
picture neither of a free natural, nor of an arti-
ficial, garden.

If the plan is more seriously carried out and

Author’s Introduction

7

on a larger scale, the imperceptibly flowing ditch
is widened to what is called a stream, a gigantic
bridge is built of rough birch trunks in a formid-
able arch over the modest brook, two or three
stiff avenues are cut through the wood to give
distant views, and here and there the much-
affected temples and ruins are dotted about, of
which the first usually become in a short space
what the second pretend to be.

This, with a few exceptional cases, is as a rule
the highest achievement of such an undertaking,
which really only causes regret that good land
should be so uselessly withdrawn from field and
vegetable culture.

Meanwhile all this has been ridiculed with
more or less wit often enough, but it is seldom
better done^ even now, and for this reason alone do
I here repeat, that many great and costly plans,
begun with the best intentions and executed at
some expense, unfortunately too evidently bear
traces of the very poor place which the art of
landscape gardening as yet holds in our Father-
land. It is true that there are a few exceptions,
but a completed example which could be set be-
side the best English plans has not come within
my experience. We may hope, however, that the
royal gardens, under the direction of the excel-
lent director, Lenne, which are to surround all
Potsdam with a park, will present us with such
an example.

Far from intending to instruct in any exhaus-
tive manner on this subject, a fairly long prac-

8

Hints on Landscape Gardening

deal experience, the careful study of excellent
examples, combined with a passionate love for
the subject and the earnest perusal of the best
works on the art of gardening in its widest sense,
have enabled me, I think, to give some valuable
hints and to draw up some useful rules, which
will appear to the expert not quite unworthy and
which may appear opportune to some dilettante
in Nature-painting, if I may so call the creation
of a picture, not with colors, but with real woods,
hills, meadows, and streams, and which may put
it in the category of the arts. For rightly under-
stood and judiciously carried out, these sugges-
tions may put one in a position, without having
to travel the costly and difficult road of experi-
ence, to entrust to the park director, engineer,
inspector, gardener, or whatever he may be called,
merely the technical execution of his own ideas,
and thus himself present a work of art, sprung
from his own individuality, formed out of his
own temperament, instead of having a garden or
rather a region made, as one orders a suit of
clothes at the tailor’s.

Much will be found, if not familiar, yet per-
haps not exactly new, and many an idea may
have been better expressed, especially in English
works, which, however, are apt to be tediously
prolix and to dilute every millionth part of salt
with a caskful of water.*

‘ When this work was nearly finished, my attention was drawn to
a manual on the same theme, recently published in Leipsic. I was pre-
pared to suppress my work, but found on perusal of the manual, noth-
ing but a laborious compilation of badly digested recipes from English

Author’s Introduction

9

The compression and brevity which I have
aimed at in matters of common knowledge will,
I hope, earn the gratitude of the reader, but as
a small merit I may claim that really nothing
has been copied from books, but that everything
which I give has been found to be true from per-
sonal experience and practically verified.

For the better understanding of what follows
it will be necessary briefly to give the manner in
which I intend ordering my remarks.

I shall show by titles in their order the con-
tents of each chapter, and for this I shall for the
most part utilize the park laid out by myself,
since my theory, as I have said, is chiefly carried
out in this park.

Drawings, which make the text more read-
able, have been inserted wherever necessary for
complete comprehension. A thorough exposi-
tion of general principles is followed by a short
history and description of the park itself, with
continual reference to the rules previously laid
down. It is not, however, my intention to go
into too great detail, but to set forth the results
obtained rather than the particular road taken,
and, as the title “Hints” shows, in no way to
give a complete manual, confining myself to
those matters in which we seem to be chiefly
lacking, and finally leave to the technical work-
man or expert whatever lies in his province.

works. What Blumenbach said of phrenology applies to this book;
“The true is not new, and the new is not true.” Repton has sup-
plied most of the useful matter, but, for the most part, it has been mis-
understood.

< '■ ,■■■

PART FIRST

HINTS ON LANDSCAPE GARDENING
IN GENERAL

•>•:;.:■ ^

'•«r;

>'4vr^

Chapter I

The Laying-out of a Park

The indispensable foundation for the build-
ing of a park is a controlling scheme.' It
should be begun and carried out with entire con-
sistency. It is therefore necessary to have it thor-
oughly thought out from the first, and guided all
the way through by one controlling mind, a mind
that should make use of the thoughts of many
others, welding them into an organic whole so
that the stamp of individuality and unity shall
never be lost. But let me not be misunderstood;
a general plan should govern the whole ; there
must be no room for random work ; in every de-
tail the guiding, creating brain must be seen ; and
it is essential that the scheme should originate
from the special circumstances of the artist, from
the experience and conditions of his life or the
former history of his family, limited by the lo-
cality with which he has to deal. I do not ad-
vise, however, that the whole plan should be
worked out in exact detail at first and doggedly

‘ One principle should, above all, underlie the art of park design;
namely, the creation, from the material at hand, out of the place as it
stands, of a concentrated picture having Nature as its poetical ideal;
the same principle which, embodied in all other spheres of art, makes
of the true work of art a microcosm, a perfect, self-contained world in
little.

14 Hints on Landscape Gardening

maintained to the end. I would, to a large ex-
tent, recommend just the opposite ; for even
if the main scheme comprehends many features
which may be considered from the start, in work-
ing it out, the artist must continually follow the
inspiration of his imagination. From time to
time the painter will alter his picture (which,
after all, is much less complicated than the pic-
ture the landscape gardener has to create), here
and there making a part more true to the gen-
eral effect or to Nature, here improving a tone,
there giving more accent, more power to a line.
Why, then, should the landscape gardener, who
works in material so refractory, so changeable,
and often so impossible to estimate in advance,
and who, moreover, has to unite many different
pictures in one, — why should he be expected
to succeed in hitting the mark at the first at-
tempt infallibly? Much will be discovered as
he goes on studying, observing, both within and
without the confines of the place, — the light
effects on his raw material (for light is one of
his chief assets), establishing cause and effect,
and thereby finding new ways of working out
in detail his early motives, or giving them up
altogether if other ideas for the treatment of
parts occur to him as being better.

To leave, undisturbed, some particular feature
which has proved a failure, is pitiable. The rea-
son the blemish is left is because it has cost
so much time, so much money, and because a
change would add to the expense, costing as much

The Laying-out of a Park

again or even more. Constant discipline is indis-
pensable in the proper exercise of any art, and
when means are not sufficient to treat every part
of a park as it should be treated, what money
there is had better be devoted toward the im-
provement of the old established features than to
the making of new ones. The postponing of al-
terations which are recognized as advisable is a
dangerous proceeding also, because existing faults
easily lead to the wrong treatment of new fea-
tures.

It has been truly said that “ artistic produc-
tion is a matter of conscience”; hence a person
with an artistic conscience cannot remain con-
tent with parts that have been recognized as not
up to the standard, or as failures. Following the
example of Nature, which starts and completes
her humblest work with the same assiduous care
that she bestows upon her most sublime crea-
tions, one would rather make any sacrifice than
leave the blemish one has become aware of, even
if in itself it is but a subordinate matter.

Although in my work at Muskau I never de-
parted a moment from the main idea which I
shall have occasion later to describe, yet I con-
fess that many portions have not only been re-
touched, but that they have been entirely changed,
often once, sometimes three and even four times.
It would be a great error to suppose that confu-
sion results from repeated alterations undertaken
with intelligence, for sound reasons and not from
caprice. Rather than that they should be un-

1 6 Hints on Landscape Gardening

dertaken from pure caprice it would certainly be
best never to have alterations for improvement,
in general the dictum, nonum prematur in annum^
holds good. One must never rest with correcting
and refining until the best possible results have
been attained ; a principle never to be relinquished
and which oftentimes alone proves to be the great
teacher.*

One can see from this how unwise it is to
invite a strange artist for some days or weeks, or
even months, with the view of making a plan in
which every road and every plantation, the com-
manding features and all the details, are exactly
fixed; and worse still, to send such a person
merely a survey of the place, he having no knowl-
edge of the character of the region, of the effects
of hill and dale, of high or low trees in the im-
mediate foreground or in the distance, so that he
may proceed at once to draw on submissive paper
his lines, which, no doubt, may look very pretty
and well there, but which realized into facts are
bound to achieve at best an inappropriate and
unsatisfactory design. One who intends to build
up a landscape must do so out of the actual ma-

* Some years ago, when I was showing my place to a lady of intel-
ligence and understanding, she modestly remarked that she understood
but little of the matter ; that she could call to mind many more pic-
turesque, grandiose places than mine, but that here, with the general
impression of quietness and simplicity, something new appealed to her at
every turn. No remark could have been more flattering to me, and if
her opinion is well founded I may consider my work truly successful,
a result which may be attributed largely to the two principles followed:
to have one main idea, and yet never to allow any feature to remain
which had proved in any way to be a failure.

The Laying-out of a Park

17

terials from which that particular landscape is to
be created, and he must be familiar with them
in every particular. Both in plan and execution
he works quite otherwise than does the painter
on his canvas; he deals with realities. The beauty
of a bit of real Nature, which by the art of the
painter can only be partly hinted at, cannot on a
plan be given at all. I am inclined to believe, on
the contrary, that, except in a very flat region
w'here no views are possible and where little can
be achieved anyhow, a plan which is agreeable
to look at, with lines pleasing to the eye, cannot
truly stand for beauty in Nature. My experience
is that in order to achieve fine results in landscape
gardening one is often obliged to select lines
which in a plan drawn on paper have no charm.

Chapter II

Size and Extent

For the landscape architect to achieve a great
effect, it is not necessary that a park should
be large. An extended estate is often so bungled,
so belittled by incompetent treatment, that, lack-
ing in unity, it appears quite small. I may here
remark, by the way, that I think Michael An-
gelo was totally wrong when he said about the
Pantheon, “Ye marvel at it on the earth, I will
set it in the heavens.” He meant thereby to
achieve a more imposing effect, and as he said,
so he did. He gave to the dome of St. Peter’s
the same size as that of the Pantheon, but how
unfortunate is the result ! The dome of St.
Peter’s, looming up in the air above the enor-
mous masses of the building, appears in propor-
tion small and insignificant, while the dome of
the old Pantheon, placed on the right base, ap-
pears after centuries as sublime as the arch of the
firmament.

Poised on the summit of Mont Blanc the
Pyramids would hardly appear as large as sentry
boxes, and Mont Blanc itself, seen from the dis-
tant plains, looks like a little snow-hill. Large
and small are, therefore, relative terms. It is not
from the thing itself that we judge, but from its

Size and Extent

19

appearance in given surroundings, and it is here
that landscape architecture has the widest of fields.
For instance, a tree a hundred feet high, which
in the middle distance hardly rises above the
horizon, will at a short distance tower above it ;
hence, with intelligent management, with due
appreciation of the value that a relation of fore-
ground has to distance, it is possible to give
character and expression to the landscape and to
secure an effect of grandeur and extent.

I cannot help remarking here that if I have
always held up as a model the general appear-
ance of English parks, which testify to a uni-
versally diffused taste for park culture and em-
bellishment, I still believe that in many ways
England might have done much better. It seems
to me that with much beauty most English
parks have one blemish which makes them, on
long acquaintance, rather tedious and monoto-
nous. I have in mind neither the English “ pleas-
ure-grounds” nor their gardens, — which are full
of variety, — but their parks. For instance, in re-
gard to the deliberate treatment of these parks as
features laid out on a diminutive scale, the effect
seems to be altogether inadequate when com-
pared to the grandeur and magnificence of the
open country around them. Indeed, in my opin-
ion, the outside country not infrequently resem-
• bles far more a region ennobled by art in variety
than the parks.

Many English parks are in fact nothing but
interminable meadows serving as pastures for

20 Hints on Landscape Gardening

numerous herds, either of tame deer, sheep, cat-
tle, or horses, with a few picturesquely arranged
groups of lofty old trees. The first view of such
noble spaces is imposing. One has the impression
of a splendid picture, but it is the same picture
and the impression therefore is always the same.
Many blemishes become evident in the detail. All
tree-trunks being browsed upon up to a certain
height by the cattle (often with an effect quite
as regular as if trimmed with shears), much and
needed variety of form is lost. The shrubbery
cannot be preserved without special enclosures;
and hence it is needed to diversify the scene, and
help make, within the picture of the ensemble^
many subordinate ones ; indeed, every newly
planted tree must be enclosed; and such artificial
enclosures gives to the picture a very stiff look.
A single path usually leads through these wide
grassy expanses to and from the castle, which,
in the middle of the lawn, stands bald and cold
in lonely majesty while cows and sheep browse
up to the marble steps leading to it. It would
not be surprising if the visitor, feeling quite for-
lorn in such monotonous and lonely grandeur,
should be under the impression that he had come
upon a bewitched region no longer inhabited by
man, where John Bull had been really trans-
formed into the shape of a beast. This effect
could easily be avoided if allotted spaces were
set apart for cattle as well as for deer, instead of
having the whole park given over to them. It
seems to have become a fixed idea with the

Size and Extent

21

English that a landscape without cattle is bound
to be melancholy, and, on the other hand, they
consider the animation by human beings to be
proportionately objectionable, and private gar-
dens are, as a rule, barred to the stranger.* The
democratic, humane use of our great German
estates is foreign to them, but their excuse is
perhaps to be found in the roughness of their
mob.

I have previously stated the proposition that
size is not an absolutely necessary element in the
making of a park ; yet, where possible, I think
it very desirable, in order that a greater variety
of parts may be gained, a quality which will
always present the supreme charm of novelty.
Laid out with equal intelligence I should always
prefer the more extensive to the smaller park,
even if the latter should be more favored bv
Nature. In Prussia, where land has so much less
value than in other countries, such large estates
are easily obtainable, and I advise every one of
my countrymen to strive for large places. It is
certain that, considered as a little world sufficient
unto itself, a park where one cannot ride or
drive for an hour at least without going over the
same roads, and which does not comprise many
roads and walks, very soon tires one, if confined
to it alone. But where a rich, picturesque Nature
has already idealized the region around and has
made it, as it were, into a great work of art, as
in the case of many parts of Switzerland, Italy,

' This is not the case at the present time.

22

Hints on Landscape Gardening

South Germany, or Silesia, then I am, on the
whole, of the opinion that projects of parks are
hors d' oeuvre. It would be like a little landscape
in the corner of a magnificent Claude Lorrain.
There one’s work should be confined to the lay-
ing-out of good roads, that the enjoyment of
such rare scenery may be made easier, here and
there taking down some isolated trees in order
to open views which are hidden by Nature,
always indifferent to the display of her beauties.

Near the house, however, one should seek for
the charm of a garden of modest proportions,
which, whenever possible, would contrast with
Nature around. In such a garden one should
have in view, not so much the variety of a land-
scape, as comfort and charm, safety and elegance.
The garden art of the Romans, which, through
the study of the classical writers, and especially
through the description which Pliny gives of his
villa, again came into practice in the fifteenth
century in Italy, and which was later, in the so-
called French gardens, altered into colder, less
comfortable forms, deserves particular considera-
tion on this very point. This rich and sumptu-
ous art, which may be called an extension of the
art of architecture from the house to the garden,
— or, as the English might say, the approach of
the landscape to the very doors of the house, —
may be most suitably applied to this purpose.
Imagine, for instance, among the precipices and
waterfalls, the dark pine woods and blue glaciers
of mountainous Switzerland, a classical, antique

Size and Extent

23

building, a palace from the Strada Balbi, sump-
tuous in its decorative flourishes, surrounded with
high terraces, with rich, multi-colored parterres
of flowers, studded with marble statues and alive
with the movement of waters, — what a contrast
would this be to the tremendous, naked grandeur
of the setting of mountains ? A few steps aside
in the woods, and palace and gardens would have
vanished from view, as by magic, to make room
again for the undisturbed loneliness and majestic
wilderness of Nature. Farther on, perhaps, a
bend in the road would open up an unexpected
vista, where, in the distance, the work of art,
like a realized fairy dream, would show through
the dark firs, glowing in the light of the setting
sun, or rising over the mysterious darkness of the
valley in a mass where, here and there, the tiny
sparkles of lighted candles would glow. Would
not such a picture be wonderful, and owe its
chief beauty largely to contrast ? When Nature
offers new material, the scheme must be differ-
ent ; then the park, an oasis in a broad, flat space,
must first create its own environment. Although
the same laws are everywhere the foundation of
beauty, they have to be interpreted and expressed
in various ways. In such a case, where no im-
pression by great contrasts can be achieved, one
must carefully seek to create a pleasant and gen-
tle harmony, bringing the few large elements,
such as distant views, into correspondence with
the character given to the park. The size of the
domain then becomes a chief consideration. In

24 Hints on Landscape Gardening

the former example it is necessary to embellish
only a single spot to make all surrounding Na-
ture serve one’s own purpose. Here, the treat-
ment should extend to the whole region. Exam-
ples which lie between these two schemes will
require modifications of both propositions and
should be tastefully treated according to the re-
spective localities. In all these cases the princi-
ples I have laid down are basic ones.

Chapter III

Enclosure

I HAVE often heard the opinion expressed that
nothing is more contrary to the way of Nature
— to which, after all, landscape gardening seeks
to conform itself — than the enclosure of a park;
but I think otherwise, and quite approve of the
English fashion of having every park enclosed
with great care. This enclosure, however, should
be varied and in large part it should not be felt
inside the park. At bottom this question of en-
closure is rather a matter of expediency than of
esthetics, and yet as an element of beauty I do
not condemn it. Are not such beautiful, unculti-
vated spots marked off as it were by distinct
boundaries, and does not such a division often
increase their charm? For example, a valley shut
in by a dense forest or by impassable rocks, an
island surrounded by running water, give the feel-
ing of home, of entire possession, of security
against intrusion or disturbance, allowing us to
enjoy all the more comfortably the beauty of the
surroundings. And, therefore, in a park the pres-
ence of a protecting wall or fence should be wel-
comed as a highly desirable element, necessary,
in excluding the unwelcome intruder, for the
peace and security of our enjoyment, but which

26 Hints on Landscape Gardening

should be so designed as to permit our going out
from the park into the surrounding country.
Hence the sight of an enclosure can be obnox-
ious only to those who hold so exaggerated a
notion of freedom that, hating everything that
bears the name of barrier, they would wish to
overturn even imaginary barriers! In England,
as I have said before, not only every park, but,
on account of the precious cattle, every section
of it, every coppice and every exposed young
tree, is surrounded with a fence, and though,
from being carried to excess, this disturbs the
general effect, I have frequently found that here
and there a fence is very picturesque, especially
where the character of the landscape changes, the
fence then preparing the mind for new impres-
sions and affording an easy transition to new scenes.

So for security’s sake let our parks have an en-
closure high and strong, assuming that this is
possible — for, to be sure, just as French cookery
books very wisely begin their receipts with “ Ayez
une carpe, ayez un perdreau, etc.,” I preface my
advice with the proviso that, locality being favor-
able and means at hand, the park should be en-
closed. But inasmuch as the heavier and bigger
the wall, the worse as a rule, is its appearance, and
bearing in mind also that it is a great mistake to
limit the field of fancy by too familiar a view of
its limits, a close and broad plantation should
hide the greater part of it. If such a barrier is
made by a wooden fence, it should never be seen,
but supplied with interesting points at intervals.

Enclosure

27

and a deep ha-ha or ditch alongside, while all
the abruptness of the hollow thus made can be
avoided by covering it with varied plantations.
The paths should approach this ha-ha or ditch
only when — for instance, by means of a small
bridge — one wishes to sally forth through an
opening into the surrounding country. The
method of screening the bridge and the bound-
aries should be as varied as possible. In one place
the foliage should run two or three hundred paces
along the boundaries, showing a high plantation
of trees; in other places again, it should be made
up of narrower and lower groups of trees, so that
over and beyond one can catch glimpses of the
outside country. In other places, these distant
views should be visible above coppices and under
isolated trees, standing among but high above
the shrubbery. If a wall surrounds the park, this
can, at intervals, be allowed freely to emerge, bro-
ken only by scattering bushes and trees, and will
look best in a ruined or unkempt state, covered
with ivy and Virginia creeper, or the foliage
may be merged into a building, a gallery, etc.
Under such conditions the wall will never be a
disturbing influence, but an improvement.

If the locality permits, — probably only in a
few cases, — I would propose the following plan
as my ideal for an enclosure for our climate,
although I could follow it only in certain por-
tions of my estate. On the boundaries of the
park, wherever open views are not desirable, a
trench one Rutße (a rod = twelve feet) wide, should

28 Hints on Landscape Gardening

be dug and sown with blackthorn or acacia seed,
which even in poor ground, in a few years makes
an impenetrable mass. Next I should set a plan-
tation of firs, mixed with a few deciduous leafed
trees and bushes, so as to secure variety of color
in summer. For the portions that are to be kept
lower we must in our climate take juniper, yew,
and medium-sized pine trees, and perhaps also
the ordinary spruce and white fir, both of which
may easily be kept low by trimming. Along this
plantation on the boundary, sometimes broad,
sometimes narrow, but hardly ever more than
three Ruthen (three rods = thirty-six feet), should
run irregularly a grass road thirty-six feet wide.
On the side toward the interior of the park should
begin the mixed plantation for forming a screen
for the general view. Here deciduous leafed trees
should predominate and in summer hide the too
monotonous evergreen foliage which should be
left conspicuous only where it is desirable. It is
surprising how such an arrangement enlivens a
park even in melancholy winters, and how the
lawn or grass path even amid snow and ice, where
everything else is bare, makes the most charming
walk. The evergreen foreground, which covers
the boundaries both winter andsummerand bor-
ders the grass path, gives color to the whole re-
gion, thus supplying a quality much desired in
winter days; 'although a well-grouped and de-
signed park should, during all seasons of the year,
even without color satisfy our sense of beauty,
especially in winter, when all ordinary decora-

Plate I. Grass Paths for Boundary of Park

Enclosure

29

tion is absent, making an interesting picture by
the harmony of its masses of trees, lawns, water,
its pleasant lines of paths and banks. That the
border plantation of pines and other evergreen
trees should be made so as to give the appear-
ance of a natural growth is obvious, and in the
chapter on “ Plantations ” examples will be given
in detail. Meanwhile the sketch in Plate I will
make my views clearer. At 0 the green path from
the park is practically hidden ; at ^ it appears only
as a cutting which loses itself in the shrubbery.

Along the boundary wall of many English
parks, carrying out in old times the work of
Brown and his followers, there runs a path be-
tween an almost regular band of foliage planted
with shrubs and trees, so that the wall is often
conspicuous between the tree-trunks. Brown may
be called the Shakespeare of the art of garden-
ing, but his work, while highly beautiful and
poetical, was often crude, angular, and uncouth.
This criticism is especially applicable to the work
of those who, undertaking to follow his teach-
ing, often imitated only his faults and were seldom
able to achieve his beauties.

My reader must not confound my plan with
this English plan, as the green path that I advo-
cate is a part of the lawn, and has no definite dis-
tinction from the lawn, but simply melts into it.
The English idea originated in the infancy of
landscape gardening, when parks of such size
were first laid out, and when it was a matter of
vanity to make them appear as large as possible;

30 Hints on Landscape Gardening

but the means defeated the end, since they osten-
tatiously pointed out what they should have ar-
tistically concealed. Apart from this enclosure,
which is necessary for protection, it is obvious
that every interesting feature of the distant land-
scape should be included in the park, all outer
rays concentrating into this focus. Distant views
of great extent, lying away beyond the actual
grounds, give an appearance ot measureless extent.
When such opportunities are skillfully utilized,
they greatly surpass the reality. They must, how-
ever, be so managed that one should never be-
come aware of the intervening park boundaries.
Moreover, such special features should never be
seen twice in the same way. For instance, many
partial glimpses may be given of a distant hill,
but only once should the hill be revealed in its
entirety. The same applies to the town or city.
Such effective planning, affording glimpses which
tempt one’s imagination and excite the pleasure
of anticipation, and compositions in which each
part is interdependent, are far more difficult to
achieve than full revelations. When people stum-
ble on a remarkably beautiful view and, after lin-
gering long, remark, “What a pity that great tree
stands in the foreground, how much grander the
view would be if it were absent,” they would be
much astonished if one did them the service to
hew away the tree. They would have a stretch
of country before them, but no longer a picture
— for a garden in the great style is really a pic-
ture gallery, and a picture demands a frame.

Chapter IV

Grouping in General^ and Buildings

IN a landscape to be created, nearly all objects,
large as well as small, call for a well-considered
grouping. The best guide here is innate taste.
Later on I will give some instructions as re-
gards details, and will formulate here only the
following general rule: If the lights and shadows
are arranged in due proportion in the picture, the
grouping as a whole will be successful. Grass-
plots, water, and fields, which do not themselves
throw any shadow, but only receive it from
other objects, are lights in the hands of the
landscape artist, while trees, forests, and houses
(and rocks where they can be used) must serve
as shadows. The unpleasant effect should be
avoided of restlessness and dispersion arising
from an excess of detail and too much inter-
rupted light; and, on the other hand, the pic-
ture should not be darkened by a few immense
blotches of shadow, nor should the meadows and
the water present too great an expanse of level
space, but should be laid out so as to be lost to
view here and there in dark groups of vegetation,
or so as to appear suddenly as carefully calcu-
lated points of light amid the darker ground-
work. Buildings should never stand freely ex-

32

Hints on Landscape Gardening

posed, lest they appear as spots, unconnected with
the natural surroundings. Concealment enhances
beauty, and here something should always be left
to the imagination. The eye frequently finds
more pleasure in a single chimney in the dis-
tance, with its spiral of gray smoke curling up-
ward against a background of trees, than in a
bare palace exposed to view on all sides, which
Nature has not yet lovingly approached and em-
braced. It is highly important that buildings
should always take on the character of the land-
scape in which they figure.* Many of our Ger-
man architects regard this too little. Buildings in
a city, for instance, must be different from build-
ings in a park. In the one case they are com-
plete in themselves ; in the other, they are only
a component part of the whole and are depend-
ent on it for picturesque effect, which they in
turn are also called upon to produce; hence their
effect in the landscape must be carefully studied.

In general, a certain irregularity is preferable
in buildings in a park, as being more in conform-
ity with Nature and more picturesque. A temple
devoted to a cult, a theater, a museum devoted
to art, doubtless demand symmetry and a more
severe style, but the mansion or villa gains by
greater irregularity, in comfort as well as in pic-
turesqueness. This same principle appears in the

' A contrast may also occasionally fit in with the character of the
whole, but it must always harmonize, as I have pointed out in the ex-
ample in the last section : the sublimity of wild nature and magnificent
art. A pretty villa would not be a fitting contrast, while an imposing
ruin would present an analogy, but no contrast.

Goethe’s Garden House at Weimar

Grouping in General, and Buildings 33

designs of the ancient villas and country houses,
as we may gather from the ruins. The most note-
worthy example is perhaps the villa of Hadrian
near Tivoli. Traces of this principle are also
found in the Italy of the Renaissance, in the fif-
teenth and sixteenth centuries: buildings half
hidden by others, large and small windows on the
same face of the building, side doors, projecting
and receding corners, occasionally a high, bare
wall with a richly ornamented cornice, roofs jut-
ting out, and balconies unsymmetrically placed,
in short, everywhere a great but by no means in-
harmonious irregularity, which pleases the fancy
because the reason for every departure from reg-
ularity is evident or may be surmised.

The site of a building must also be carefully
considered. For instance, a feudal castle in the
midst of a level field of grain, as we find at Ma-
chern near Leipzig, appears somewhat comical ;
and so is the Egyptian pyramid which is to be
found there in the idyllic surroundings of a gay
birch wood. As well imagine a straw-thatched
hut surrounded by a French parterre. All these
are undesirable contrasts that destroy the har-
mony. For example, pointed Gothic buildings
would make an unfavorable impression if set
among spruces and Lombardy poplars, while
among oaks, beeches, and pines they would be
quite in place. On the other hand, spruces and
poplars harmonize with the horizontal lines of
an Oriental villa.

The importance of harmonious beauty has for

34 Hints on Landscape Gardening

its corollary that the purpose of a building must
be evident in its style. A Gothic house, for in-
stance, which is nothing else and has no other
significance, being built just for the sake of hav-
ing something Gothic on the grounds, produces
a feeling of dissatisfaction. It is a hors d' ceuvre^
uncomfortable as a dwelling, and as a decoration
unrelated to its surroundings ; but if we see on a
distant hill the spires of a chapel rising above
the ancient trees, and we are told that this is the
burial-place of the family, or a temple actually
used for worship, then we feel satisfied, because
we find utility combined with fitting beauty.

The same effect of dissatisfaction is produced
by an immense palace set on a small estate, sur-
rounded by the huts of poverty, or a vast park
with an insignificant cottage in the center.

Buildings, then, must stand in appropriate re-
lation to their surroundings and should always
have a positive purpose. Hence, one should be
very careful in the matter of temples, which in
ancient times had a quite different, popular re-
ligious significance, and also with meaningless
monuments, if they are to leave a deeply moving
and not a trivial impression. The trite, incoher-
ent manner in which in these days mythology is
taken up, makes it desirable to abandon it en-
tirely, and similarly to refrain from the rule of
inscriptions which are intended in certain locali-
ties to arouse certain sentiments. Even were they
from Goethe himself, as in Weimar, these in-
dubitably find in his writings a better place.

Grouping in General, and Buildings 35

Only where they are occasionally necessary, as
on the finger-post at a crossroad, does one thank-
fully acknowledge the required direction. The
most amusing example under this heading must
surely be the one represented in the “ Gardeners’
Magazine ” by a fine drawing of a bench dedi-
cated to friendship, whose back forms the words
“ Orestes and Pylades.” Near it stands a music
pavilion, crenelated with music notes, from
which the passer-by can at once sing “ Freut
euch des Lebens” as he goes. Such a lesson is
splendid, for it brings culture within the scope
of the most limited intelligence.

In England also one is not free from such ab-
surdities. Thus, I found, in an otherwise very
pretty villa near London, in the shrubbery a
plump, wooden, white-daubed Amor, with puffed
cheeks, hanging by ropes between branches, and
threatening to shoot the passer-by with his arrow;
and twenty steps farther on some apes of the
same material, which played on the lawn like fos-
silized figures. On inquiry I found that the taste-
ful grounds belonged to a newly wed young
brewer who had just returned from the Conti-
nent with his bride; hence Amor and the Apes
were sufficiently explained!

The most important building in the park is
naturally the dwelling-house. It should be suited,
not only to the surroundings, but also to the posi-
tion, the means, and even to the calling of the
owner. The roomy castle and its battlements and
towers are perhaps unsuitable to the merchant.

36 Hints on Landscape Gardening

but quite becoming to the noble aristocrat, the
fame of whose family has been handed down for
centuries, and whose forefathers really needed
them to make strongholds of their abode. The
elder Repton (Amenity Repton, so-named) went
so far as to hide entirely with trees the fine view
of the city of Bristol, in order that the owner of
a certain villa, a merchant who had retired from
business, should not be unpleasantly reminded of
his past cares and worries by beholding the city
where he had spent his laborious days. This is
thoroughly English, as well as the endeavor of
many egotists there to hide from view everything
that belongs to their place, no matter how pic-
turesque it is. Without going so far, I will say
here that the view from the dwelling-house
should harmonize as much as possible with the
individual taste of the owner, since the eye al-
ways rests on it, and hence the view of the house
should be secondary to the view from the house,
while the reverse might hold good for most of
the other buildings of the park.

I will remark here, by the way, that the points
of the compass should also be considered. A per-
son in our climate occupying the north side of
a dwelling will often hear the storm winds howl,
and will behold all objects under a somber veil,
while his neighbor who occupies the south side
beholds a clear sky and a sunlit landscape.

Where there are genuine old castles, or manor
houses, which have been in the possession of the
family for a long time (not new buildings in imi-

Warwick Castle

Grouping in General, and Buildings 37

tation of an old style), 1 am of the opinion that
their ancient character should be preserved when
they are enlarged or made more comfortable,
even if a much finer building might be erected
on the spot. The memory of a by-gone time,
the majesty of years, also counts for something,
and it is a real misfortune that our pasteboard
age has destroyed so many of these relics. Thus,
quite recently a splendid castle in my neighbor-
hood, the possession of one of the first nobles of
the land, was pulled down at great cost and sup-
planted by a three-cornered structure resembling
a Leipzig goods store built by an up-to-date
architect, in which the yard measure, flanked by
bales and cases, would have been the only appro-
priate insignia.

The English have not yet been guilty of this
folly, and nowhere else are family possessions
more religiously and more proudly preserved.
We also find there many estates of mere bour-
geois families which for more than six centuries
have passed from father to son, and with so little
change in general that, for instance, in Malahide
in Ireland, the family seat of the Talbots, even
the woodwork and the furniture of entire apart-
ments date back to those early years. And who
can behold the splendors of majestic Warwick
Castle, with its colossal tower a thousand years
old, or the royal seat of the Duke of Northum-
berland, without feeling penetrated with romantic
awe, and without delighting in the matchless
beauty of these grand piles?

Hints on Landscape Gardening

On the other hand, it is a mistake to erect
buildings intended for peaceable dwellings in the
style of a castle or stronghold. The most costly
examples of this kind in England are Eatonhall
and Ashridge, where millions have been spent
in creating a child’s toy, immense fortresses set
in flower gardens, whose innumerable turrets and
battlements looking down upon the hothouses
filled with exotic plants seem ludicrous, and whose
owners, in the words of a waggish traveler, should
walk about their pleasure-grounds like Don
Quixote, with shield and armor, to be in har-
mony with their buildings. A dallying with
things Gothic is as silly as a man in second child-
hood.

Chapter V

Parks and Gardens

PARKS and gardens are two very different
things, and it is perhaps one öf the chief
drawbacks of all the German and English grounds
that I know, that this distinction is almost never
sufficiently observed, so that, as Milliner says, we
too frequently meet with only a hodge-podge
of art and nonsense. Although the term “ park”
in the larger sense is generally applied to the en-
tire landscape design of the region, including
all dwellings, it really means, more accurately de-
fined, a combination of “ pleasure-grounds” and
gardens within the larger area of the main park.*
The park must have the character of untrammeled
Nature, where the hand of man is visible only in
the well-kept roads and the judiciously scattered
buildings. It seems to me, however, a lack of
taste to ignore the human element altogether,
and, in order to keep the illusion of wild Nature,
to have to wade through the tall grass and tear
one’s self on thorns in the woods, and come upon

* The word “pleasure-ground” is difficult to translate accurately
into German, and I therefore consider it better to retain the English
expression; it means a terrain, abutting on the house and decorated
and fenced in, of far larger dimensions than gardens usually are; some-
thing that establishes a gradation between the park and the true garden,
which should appear to be really a part of the house.

40 Hints on Landscape Gardening

a bench for the weary without a rest for the back,
although Rousseau recommends all this. Such
grounds should represent Nature, it is true, but
Nature arranged for the use and comfort of man.
If one can bring within the park a manor house
with its fields adjoining, a mill or a factory, this
will give it only the more life and variety, which
is much to be recommended; on the other hand,
one must be careful not to overdo it. In order to
avoid the latter, one should endeavor to separate
the different elements by a harmonious arrange-
ment of the various parts of the whole, and not
mingle them awkwardly with one another.

The fields, for instance, should be massed in
the farm and not scattered all over the park ;
everything should be allotted its distinct place
and maintain its peculiar characteristics, and the
transition should be appropriately defined. But
if various objects have already approached too
near each other, or if they are required for other
purposes, then, in order to avoid overloading
and confusion, let everything be given as much
as possible the same character. In my park,* for
example, a fisherman’s hut leaning against high
oaks is set beside a lake formed by a branch of

' I will repeat here that I so frequently refer to my own park, not
in a spirit of boastfulness, but because I can, of course, find no better
illustrations for my theories, and I am also obliged to describe, as act-
ually existing, things which are not in reality completed, but which are
in process of construction and determined on the plans, as far as I have
made them, because they have been sufficiently tried. I must do this
for the sake of brevity, and also because I should otherwise have to
wait ten more years before publishing this book, in which time, I hope,
it might appear superfluous.

Parks and Gardens

41

the river ; somewhat higher up, not quite two
hundred feet from the bank, which is steeper
here, there is a wax bleachery ; quite close to
this, are an ice-house and the lodge of a park
keeper ; farther away on the other side of the
river, still in the same vista, and apparently near,
is an English cottage; and behind are seen the
thatched roofs of the village, and, crowning all,
the spire of the village church.

If all these objects, which serve entirely dif-
ferent purposes, and are either really very close
together or are made to appear so from the road
by optical illusion, were built, each one in a dif-
ferent style, they would be a perfect salamagundi,
offensive to good taste. In order to obviate this,
it was only necessary to have all the buildings,
with slight variations, preserve the rustic char-
acter of the village, which is the dominating
feature of this plot, and to cover the English
cottage, the fisherman’s hut, the bleachery, and
the ice-house, like the village, with straw or
some other rustic covering. Thus, the plot ap-
pears as one integral part of the park, as a pleas-
ant little village spreading out on both sides of
the river, inhabited by well-to-do villagers. I
have thus produced unity out of multiplicity ;
twenty buildings, each with a character of its
own, scattered over the landscape, look like
twenty separate objects, while a city of ten thou-
sand connected houses forms a simple unit in its
general effect.

Should the view embrace a stretch of land-

42 Hints on Landscape Gardening

scape, it is true that heterogeneous objects might
without detriment be visible at one glance, yet
the imagination can never succeed in accepting
with satisfaction (what has been attempted in
many parks, famous in their time) the conjunc-
tion of a Chinese tower with a Gothic church,
two or three Greek temples, a Russian block-
house, a ruined castle, a Dutch farmhouse, with,
perhaps, a volcano thrown in, all being part of
one picture. In contemplating such a scene, no
matter how beautiful the setting, taste could not
but suffer from artistic indigestion !

On the other hand, the principles which should
be established for the “pleasure-ground” and
gardens are entirely different ; the latter may be
as varied as possible, as flower gardens, winter
gardens, orchards, vineyards, vegetable gardens,
etc. In England I saw exotic gardens, Chinese
gardens, American gardens, monastic, and even
porcelain, gardens.

I may repeat here with some variation what
I have said before: as the park is Nature ideal-
ized within a small compass, so the garden is an
extended dwelling. Here the tastes of the owner
may have free play, following his imagination
and indulging even in trivialities.' Everything
should be decorative, designed for comfort, and

* Of course there may be things that are obvious absurdities. In a
garden in Vienna, for instance, I saw a house in the shape of a tub in
which sits an immense Diogenes of cardboard, who seems to have just
extinguished his light in deference to the spectator; or elsewhere a
bench, where a person who sits down upon it is drenched, after a few
minutes, with a squirt of water, and other like impertinences.

Parks and Gardens

43

as ornamental as the means permit. Let the lawns
appear as a velvet carpet embroidered with flow-
ers ; gather together the rarest and the most
beautiful exotic plants, curious animals, multi-
colored birds ‘ (provided that Nature or art will
enable them to thrive) ; polished benches, re-
freshing fountains, the cool shades of dense ave-
nues, order and fancy; in short, everything in
turn to evoke the richest and most varied effects,
just as one furnishes every salon in the interior
of a house in a different style. Thus, one may
continue the suite of rooms on a greater scale
under the open sky, whose blue vault, with ever-
renewed cloud canopy, takes the place of the
painted ceiling, and in which sun and moon are
the perpetual illumination. To draw up rules for
such details is more in the province of the dec-
orative gardener, still more of the individual
taste of the master, and perhaps most of all should
be left to the delicate taste and delightful fancy
of women. Hence, as regards this point I shall
only make some general remarks.

It is essential that the confines of each garden,
in which I always include the “ pleasure-ground,”
for the sake of security should have an enclosure
which separates it from the park.

If the locality allows of a high terrace, or a
continuous ha-ha, this would, in most cases, be

‘ But there must be no superfluity, nor any trace of dirt or odors,
and if this cannot be so managed, then the menagerie should be re-
moved; for curiosities which can be admired only with the handker-
chief at the nose are undesirable in a place which should be devoted
only to the comfortable enjoyment of beauty.

44 Hints on Landscape Gardening

the best enclosure for a “pleasure-garden,” and
regular lines that are not concealed, but quite
visibly mark the difference, are here to be recom-
mended ; for a garden is the occasion for very
obvious art, and must therefore appear as such.
While this barrier keeps out of the gardens the
cattle or the deer grazing in the park, or visibly
divides from them the meadows intended only
for hay, the eye dwells with pleasure, first, upon
the rich colors of the foreground, with its wealth
of flowers and the emerald carpets of carefully
kept lawns, and beyond, upon the open land-
scape with its imposing trees or the waving
grasses sown with wild flowers, where the mow-
ers swing their glittering scythes in the sun or
repose at noon in the fragrant hay. This contrast
between free Nature and artistic cultivation, vis-
ibly separated and yet melting into one harmo-
nious picture, is doubly soothing to the feelings.

It depends on the locality whether all the dif-
ferent gardens (and the more there are the more
pleasing effect of variety they produce) shall be
enclosed in one large space, most fittingly near
the dwelling-house, or whether they shall be
scattered about the park. I have pursued a mid-
dle course, extending the “pleasure-ground” all
around the castle, and not, as is generally done in
England, only on one side; the flower gardens ap-
proach close to the windows, a conservatory open-
ing from the salon forming a connecting link ;
then at a little distance, as a plot by itself, but
still within the circumference of the “ pleasure-

Bird’s-Eye View of Versailles

Parks and Gardens

45

ground,” the Orangerie, the winter garden, the
conservatories, and the vegetable gardens ; but
the orchards, the vineyard, and the nurseries I
have distributed, at a distance from the castle,
through the park; moreover, I have laid out sev-
eral smaller gardens, in different styles, around
the other principal buildings of the park, which
I will describe more in detail farther on.

Although all these gardens are decorated here
and there by scattered flower beds, the great mass
and variety of flowers are reserved for the flower
gardens proper. I repeat here that the selection
and distribution of the flowers must be left to the
individual taste of the owner, though I will say
in passing that flowers of the same kind in large
masses generally make a far more impressive
effect than a mixture of many different kinds in
the same bed. Yet the nuances are so various, and
there is so much to be considered in the design-
ing, that only years of practice and experience
will give the best. The light cast upon the flow-
ers by the surrounding objects is a prime consid-
eration. A rose in shadow and a rose in light
yield quite different colors; much more the
blue flowers. But especially striking is the effect
brought about by the contrast of dark shade with
bright sunlight on full white flowers mixed with
others of brilliant color. Generally speaking, it
is advisable to break strong-tinted flowers with
white, in order to make the former stand out in
stronger relief.

A winter garden, as the name implies, must

46 Hints on Landscape Gardening

be confined to evergreen plants, and in our cold
climate it is very difficult to grow any variety.
Orangeries and hothouses belong to them ; also
statues and fountains, which, even when the water
freezes, do not lose their picturesque character.
Regular arrangements after ancient models, or
French taste growing therefrom yield the best
results, and if the effect of turf is desired, then
evergreen creeping plants or the bright green
dwarf bilberry and cranberry plants may be util-
ized. I can only touch slightly on these points,
partly on account of the numerous details which
lie out of the scope of this work, and partly be-
cause further remarks will be forthcoming in my
description of the park at Muskau.

I close this chapter, therefore, with the re-
mark that kitchen and fruit gardens, although
essentially for use, can be made pleasing to the
eye by the happy arrangement of the beds of the
first, and in the second by the training of fruit
trees en espalier or by the trellising of them on
walls (see Table I c) ; by convenient paths, and
by the utmost cleanliness and order, so that one
may here enjoy the warm sunlight in the spring,
or later in the year pluck the ripest fruit. In
England, where everything is made to serve the
utmost convenience, strawberries are planted in
terraces near the paths, to be reached without
troublesome stooping. And raised paths are made
under the fruit trees, so that cherries and apples
grow on the level of the stroller. Several lengths
of wall are built in the middle of the kitchen

Parks and Gardens

47

garden, affording, not only a protected sunny side,
but also a shady side, and all kinds of fruit trees
are skillfully trained on them. English fruit, even
in the open, gets too little sunlight, and the ripest
are still, as in the time of the Due de Langeais,
the cooked apples.*

' The well-known saying was, “ Qu’en Angleterre il n’y avait de
poll que I’acier et ne fruits murs que les pommes cuites.” (“ There is
in England nothing polished but steel, and no ripe fruit but the baked
apple.”)

Chapter VI

Concerning the Laying-out of the Lawns of Parks
Meadows, and Gardens

WHAT the gold backgrounds of the old
masters, which set out the sweet, lovable
faces of madonnas and saints in so ideal a manner,
are to religious pictures, green, luxuriant grass
spaces are to a landscape. They are, as it were, the
canvas of Nature-painting, the playground where
the sun disports an element of brightness which
sets out the whole landscape. Green grass en-
hances the freshness of the entire landscape and
furnishes a carpet for the sun to shine upon,
whereas an arid, gray heath appears like a shroud
even in the most beautiful spot. But while the
grass plot should be green, it should not be
marshy, being thereby rendered inaccessible, nor
so soft and spongy that horses and wagons leave
their tracks in passing over, thereby spoiling its
appearance for months after. Although the latter
cannot be wholly avoided in the first weeks after
laying the plot out, especially in wet weather,
yet if the grass is well kept it soon acquires a firm
texture, even in light soil.

For the making of lawns I can recommend
the following rules, which the experience of sev-
eral years in my neighborhood has confirmed : —

The Laying-out of Lawns

49

(1) Whether in a meadow or for a park or
pleasure-ground it is of no avail to sow only one
kind of grass seed. With only one kind of grass,
perennial or not, it is not possible to secure a
close grass texture.

(2) For the first two — namely, meadows and
park — I consider the richest mixture to be the
best, but with this proviso, that the particular
kind of grass which experience has found to be
the most suitable to the special soil should dom-
inate, to the extent of a third to a half of the
mixture. In wet ground the greater part should
be timothy [Phleum pratense) \ for heavy soil, rye
grass [Lolium perenne) ; for loam, yellow clover
[Medicago lupulina) and French rye grass [Ar-
rhenatherum elatius') ; for light soil, honey or vel-
vet grass [Holcus lanatus) ; for high ground, white
clover {Trifolium repens') ^ etc.

(3) If the plot that is to be sown is dry, it is
advisable to trench it twelve to eighteen inches
first, whatever the soil may be, but the top soil
must be spread over the surface again if the soil
below is inferior, and a sandy soil must of course
be improved by muck, compost, or field soil. If
the expense of digging trenches is too great, then
one must plough to at least the usual depth, and
in most cases still deeper with a subsoil plough.
The field so prepared should be sown (herefrom
the middle of August to the middle of Septem-
ber) in rather moist weather and very thickly,
and the seed at once well rolled in. On heavy
soil it is best to wait for a dry day. By the end

50 Hints on Landscape Gardening

of October the most beautiful green will cover
the new meadows. The next year they should
be mowed quite early, in order to obtain an even
growth, but the seed should be allowed to ripen
and fall to the ground, thus securing a greater
density of turf for the following year. Nothing
more is now necessary than to roll it well every
year after each mowing, and every three or four
years, as may be required, to fertilize it plenti-
fully with a compost field soil, muck, or with
manure. In this manner, on light dry soil and
to the surprise of many landowners, I have pro-
duced the most luxurious meadow, which, in-
stead of giving out in ten years as was prophe-
sied, steadily improved, and from a pecuniary
point of view has proved quite a good invest-
ment, as in four years the capital spent on it has
been repaid.

(4) Marshy ground should first be dried, for
which the English method of underground drains
is the best. This consists of large hollow tiles
laid on flat tiles (bricks), making durable little
canals, which are not constantly choked by debris,
as is the case with drains made by filling ditches
with brushwood and stones. If one has plenty
of rapidly flowing water, one may often devise
charming open waterways, which drain off the
water even better than the tiles, and make a most
attractive feature in the landscape. If cleverly
constructed in a natural way, they will improve
instead of disfiguring the prospect. I recom-
mend, for such little streams, the construction

The Laying-out of Lawns

51

of open, clean-cut main channels, with sharp
rather than round bends, and then, banks made
as sloping as possible, in order not to break the
grass level too abruptly and lose too much meadow
land. To give the required variety in detail to
the bed of the stream, the earth may be taken
away here and there, sometimes from the upper,
sometimes from the lower bank, and still further
to vary the effect, bushes, stones, or water plants
may be set on or near the edge of the water. It
is obvious that, wherever possible, watering or
flooding a lawn or grass field must be carefully
provided for, and that there should be one gen-
eral flooding for a few days in the spring, and
even after every mowing. Wherever this can be
done, it is preferable to the daily watering dur-
ing the hot weather, from which I have never
derived much benefit.

(5) If one desires to lay out lawns for “ pleas-
ure-grounds ” and gardens, grass seeds should be
mixed according to the ground, but all coarse
grasses, such as honey or velvet grass {Holcus lana-
tus), French rye grass {^Arrhenatherum elatius),
thread grass, etc., should be avoided. Festuca
ovina (sheep’s fescue), white clover (Trifolium
repens), and English rye grass (Folium perenne), are
generally used in England, and when the finer
kind of lawn is desired, instead of rye grass, sev-
eral kinds of Agrosfis or red-top and other very
fine grasses. In our soil and climate the most
beautiful and firm turf can be best assured in a
short time by sodding with selected fine park

52 Hints on Landscape Gardening

grass which one can find everywhere on the bor-
ders of fields and edges of woods. It should be
cut off in long strips, rolled up, then laid on the
properly prepared ground in the same way it lay
before it was cut, firmly bedded with wooden
pounders, all gaps stopped, a little good garden
earth strewn over, and a little of the above grass
mixture sown on top ; the whole being finally
rolled and watered. This is sure to give the de-
sired result, and if later on any portion of the
lawn should show patches of poor turf, I have
often found, in order to make the growth strong
and healthy, that it was quite sufficient to dig
up such parts and sow fresh seed.

The proper treatment later on is, however,
the most important thing, without which no
short grass can long remain in good condition.
First of all it must be mowed every eight days
in wet, every fourteen days in dry, weather, and
it should be rolled at least as often. It is best to
let the rolling precede the mowing, first, in or-
der to press down little stones and other obstruc-
tions, in which the scythe is apt to catch and
stick, and second, so as to obliterate the stripes
which the roller leaves on the lawn and which
are conspicuous for several days. The usual rye
scythes will serve with grass as well ; but the
operation requires considerable practice and a
very even stroke. Also, to avoid leaving out bits of
long grass, one must mow every piece twice, down
and up, in dry weather. The morning hours,
before the dew is gone, are the best for mowing.

The Laying-out of Lawns

53

If these instructions are followed out exactly,
it will seldom be necessary to have to weed out
isolated encroachments of flowers or weeds ; they
either die out of themselves, or have no time to
affect injuriously the evenness of the turf. It is
also a mistake to try to weed out all moss in a
lawn of this kind. Many kinds, under the treat-
ment I have described, in the shade of the trees,
where no grass will grow, make a carpet which
is like satin in softness and excels even grass in
freshness. I remember to have seen in the Isle
of Wight a long stretch of moss of this kind,
which, in elasticity, soft green, and closeness of
texture, excelled any lawn I have seen in Eng-
land, and also I have succeeded in making charm-
ing places of this kind under high trees.

As soon as the grass is cut, the lawn should
be raked off and then swept carefully its entire
length with sharp brooms, until it is as clean as
a floor. It is then more pleasant for walking
than the best gravel path and does not at all
require the anxious warnings and notice boards
which in our gardens often border on the ridicu-
lous. One may play ball on it all day without
fear of doing it any damage. It is true that,
during a severe drought, I have been compelled
to water my lawns with a large fire engine con-
nected with a pump which was stationed for
this purpose near the castle, with sufficient power
to use a leather hose having a length of more
than three hundred feet. I cannot, however, as-
sert that much good was accomplished thereby.

54 Hints on Landscape Gardening

and I have abandoned it on account of the great
expense. In time of extreme drought any lawn
will, in spite of all irrigation, be inferior to one
which has had plenty of rain, but even if, in the
hottest months, the lawn should be apparently
all burned up, yet it will be renewed in the au-
tumn. In any case, during periods of great heat
and severe drought it is advisable neither to roll
nor to mow. Except under these circumstances,
the time of mowing and rolling should begin
when the grass has grown an inch or two and
only cease on the approach of the season of frost
and snow. This continuous procedure is, of
course, expensive, and in many places in Eng-
land it is customary to keep well mowed only
the lawn in front of the house and on the bor-
ders of the “ pleasure-ground,” especially when
the master is absent. The closeness of the grass,
however, as well as its cleanliness, suffers, as I
have often experienced, if it is not continually
mown. In very large gardens it is as well to
keep several men for the single purpose of mow-
ing,' and to let them mow continuously in the
morning hours, so that when the last piece is
finished, the work can be at once taken up at
the beginning. In this way it is possible to have
the lawn appear for the largest part tidy all the
time, as to mow and roll and sweep such exten-
sive spaces all at once in one or two mornings

‘ In general it is advisable to keep the same workmen on the one
task. They do their work better and more quickly, and give more
satisfaction.

The Laying-out of Lawns

55

would require, especially with the sluggishness
and slow way of working of our country folk,
an extraordinary number of men, and the un-
skilled labor necessarily employed would, more-
over, give poor and unequal results.

I have dwelt on these details, because in Ger-
many few things are so neglected ; indeed, in
many cases they seem to be quite ignored. On
my place I have proved that with similar treat-
ment we can obtain as good lawns in spring,
summer, and autumn as in England; on account
of our harder climate it is not possible in win-
ter, at the beginning of which English lawns
are at their best. It is less possible, perhaps, for
us to vie with the richness of the open meadows
in England, especially with their wealth of
flowers, of which I remember examples, where
at a little distance bright reds, blues, and yellows
entirely mantled the green.

The field set apart for meadow is sown for a
year or two with root crops, then it is laid out
in little sections for the men engaged in manur-
ing and working it, irregularities are leveled
down, and each section worked across. When
the whole field has been thoroughly worked in
this manner according to its quality, — since it
is seldom that even a field of ten acres is of the
same quality, — I spread on the lighter soil clay
and marl, on the heavier soil, sand and light
loam, also a compost made of turfy earth and
oak tan bark, leveling the whole once more with
the spade so that the smallest inequalities are

56 Hints on Landscape Gardening

worked into the trenches and hollows. The
whole field is then prepared so that the roller
can reach every bit of its surface.*

The best time for sowing with grass I have
found to be in August; also in September when
the weather permits, though August is prefer-
able. The advantages of sowing in the summer
are: (i) In the autumn one does not expect to
have such severe droughts as in the spring ; there-
fore, the grass becomes thick and very strong be-
fore winter. (2) On meadows the grass seed sown
in the autumn grows more vigorously and safely.
{ 3 ) One can level the ground and improve it with
compost in the summer when the work of the
spring and other pressing requirements have been
attended to, according to the number of men and
draught cattle available. Here, where wages are
not exactly excessive, I have the ground, when
it has been prepared as above, turned up in July
in small sections. As soon as rainy weather sets
in and the clods are half dry, so that the earth
does not clog, I go over it once with the harrow,
and sow it in the order of the following mix-
tures: English rye grass [Lolium perenne)^ or-
chard grass [Dactylis glomeratd)^ meadow fescue
[Festuca pratensis'^, velvet grass {Holcus lanatus),
French rye grass {Arrhenatherum elatius) and tim-
othy grass in equal parts, and allow for a Magde-
burg acre (.63 of an English acre) one half hun-

' It may perhaps interest students to have a regular receipt for the
sowing of lawns, which I have set down as suggested by my head gar-
dener, giving the manner in which the most successful of my lawns
have been procured.

The Laying-out of Lawns

57

dredweight of clean seed. Generally, however,
because of cost, the seed is not sufficiently cleaned,
and in this case double and, on lighter ground,
treble the above amount is required. Timothy
grass, on account of its fine and heavy grain,
does not mix well with the other seeds, and
therefore to ten pounds of timothy [Phleum pra-
tense) I add one pound of white clover [Trifo-
lium repens^, one pound red clover [Trifolium
pratense), one pound of yellow clover, and one
pound of sweet or Bokhara clover [Melilotus
officinal and later spread this mixture, which
is of equally heavy grain, over the space which
has already been sown with the lighter mixture.
Then the field is harrowed and rolled lengthways
and crossways. When the greater part of the
seed is ripe the next summer, I have it beaten
off with rakes or small stakes before mowing. In
good weather the greater part of the fallen seeds
sprout again, whereby I obtain a fairly thick
grass turf in one year, which otherwise I could
not expect from a sown meadow for several years,
unless I were to sow three times as thickly, which
would be very expensive, since the harvesting
and threshing of grass seed is rather difficult and
depends very much upon the weather.

Chapter VII

Trees and Shrubs and their Groupings and
Plantations in General

The first requirement of a landscape is the
vigorous growth of all plants. The finest
forms of mountains and lakes, the brilliancy of the
sun and sky, combined with the naked rocks and
bare lakes, cannot replace meadows and the luxu-
riant growth of various forms of trees with their
diversified, pleasing green and rich foliage. For-
tunate the man to whom his forbears have be-
queathed lofty woods of old oaks, beeches, and
lindens, these proud giants of our Northern clime,
standing still untouched by the woodman’s mur-
derous axe. He should never regard them without
veneration and delight, he should cherish them
as the apple of his eye, for neither money nor
power, neither a Croesus nor an Alexander, can re-
store an oak a thousand years old in its wonder-
ful majesty after the poor laborer has felled it.
Terrible and swift is the destructive power of
man, but poor and weak is his power to rebuild.
May an ancient tree be to you, kind reader, who
love Nature, a holy thing. And yet, here also,
the individual tree must be sacrificed, if need be,
to the general group.

It may happen that a tree which, taken alone.

Trees and Shrubs

59

is most beautiful, does really disturb the effect-
iveness and harmony of the whole, and then it
must be sacrificed. Such occasions, however, are
very rare, and I, unfortunately, know from my
own experience that a slight alteration of plans
would often be sufficient to spare a precious vet-
eran whose execution at first seemed unavoidable.
At all events, before applying the executioner’s
axe, be sure to deliberate not once but many
times. It may be that the importance which I
give to this matter may appear exaggerated, yet
a true lover of Nature will understand me, and
appreciate the qualms of conscience that half a
dozen trees murdered without reason continue to
cause me. On the other hand, my only conso-
lation is that by boldly cutting down other trees
I have made such great improvements that the
gain outbalances the loss. Besides, there is no
denying that by the removal of a few big trees
more can be accomplished in one day than in a
hundred years by planting thousands of speci-
mens, and that the loss of a few of these is not
to be regretted if their number is increased a
hundredfold to the eye by making so many others
visible which had previously been quite obscured.
This is so certain, that, although I have not been
blessed with a surplus of ancient trees in my park,
yet I have succeeded in apparently multiplying
tenfold the number of them left standing. These,
by the removal of some eighty others, are visi-
ble now from all points. One is often struck by
the fact in such cases that “One cannot see the

6o Hints on Landscape Gardening

woods for the trees.” The great art in laying out
a park consists in making use of comparatively
few objects in such a way that a great variety of
different pictures result, in which the recurrent
elements are not recognized or at least produce
novel and surprising effects. The double illustra-
tion on Plate II shows the result which was
brought about by the removal of about twenty
old limes which stood in front of the castle.

It is far more important to select, for trees to
be transplanted, the kind of soil which suits them,
or to procure it artificially if it is not natur-
ally available, and above all, never to transplant
them to w'orse ground than they previously occu-
pied. It is really amusing how ignorant most
planters are in this matter, and how they place
various species of trees quite haphazard, without
suspecting, much less taking any trouble to dis-
cover, how various are the mixtures of soil which
each plant particularly requires. The most ordi-
nary agriculturist is quite aware of this with re-
gard to his fruit trees, and observes it daily ; the
ornamental tree planter, at the most, knows so-
called “"good soil,” that is, heavy loam and sand.
On this matter I must be content to draw the
attention of the reader to its importance, as a ne-
cessarily long disquisition would take me too far
beyond my prescribed limits. Sterile soils can be
made to produce, without great expense, luxuriant
growth of all kinds of trees which can bear the
climate provided one has a proper compost of
mixed peat, sand, loam, and in addition manure

Plate II. View from the Front of the Castle at Moskau, showing Effect of the Removal of about Twenty Large Trees

Trees and Shrubs

6 1

and straw and lime^ if it can be obtained at a
moderate price.

In case there is underlying the whole region
a coarse gravel or impenetrable clay, all attempts
are hopeless. Any one who plants lindens in heavy
loam, chestnuts in marl, beeches in peat, planes
in quicksand, as I have often seen done, has him-
self to blame when he raises cripples instead of
trees. So much for transplanting single trees. With
regard to the art of their grouping I will add the
following : F requently several trees may be planted
close together in one and the same hole, some
fork-like; sometimes five to six should be placed
in almost straight lines, etc.; for groups symmet-
rically rounded off become as monotonous in the
end as do regular alleys. The accompanying illus-
tration (Plate III, a and b) shows two ground-
plans with the same number of trees, one badly
and one well grouped: c shows artificially, and
d naturally, planted groups. On slopes, because
of the long shadows they throw, single trees show
better than groups. On flat ground trees should
less often stand out singly, but should be so dis-
posed as to give the eye a certain continuity of
view, not too much broken up, here by sweep-
ing, there by nearer, sometimes round, sometimes
extended, groups.

A pleasing effect is frequently obtained by
planting two entirely different species of trees in
the same hole, such as birch and alder, willow
and oak, of which I possess a very picturesque
specimen in my “ pleasure-ground,” or by allow-

62 Hints on Landscape Gardening

ing one tree to grow askew leaning almost hori-
zontally over the water.

To bring about such little artifices one must
observe Nature herself and await a convenient
opportunity for the undertaking. Thus, I recom-
mend the planting of all trees intended to stand
alone on a somewhat rounded spot of ground, as
the heaped-up earth gives them a more graceful
outline, and old trees which have grown up from
seed nearly always stand naturally on just such a
swelling point forced up by the growing roots.

In order to judge of their effect beforehand,
it is a good idea, before planting groups, to stick
in the ground felled trees and branches. I should
advise this course until riper experience gives the
proper instinct and until the trained powers of
the imagination become able to paint the picture
accurately in the mind. But one cannot expect
that every arrangement will look equally well
from all sides; that is impossible; so one should
take only the chief points of view, test the whole
from these points only, and by the disposition of
the paths prevent the visitor from being led to
the less favorable spots.

With solid young plantations I generally take
the following course: First of all, I have the
entire plot of ground trenched to a depth of at
least two feet, even if the soil consists only of the
lightest drift sand. The chemical effect of trench-
ing and the receptivity for moisture thus imparted
to the earth often passes all expectations. By
trenching four feet in bare granular sand on a

Trees and Shrubs

63

sterile hill, where one would expect only birches
and pines to prosper, I have grown good oaks,
maples, limes, and firs, and, as they have flour-
ished for a period of twelve years, their future
growth is reasonably safe.'

Only on steep declivities, where trenching is
impracticable, would I permit, even in the case
of solid plantations, the forester’s method of
planting trees in small single trenches, a s tyle
only to be used in ornamental work were abso-
lutely necessary. Wherever it is possible without
excessive cost, I try to improve the original soil
in some degree, but if this is not feasible, I select
for planting thereon only such kinds of trees as
may be expected to thrive. If time, however,
allows, I manure the trenched territory first and
plant it with potatoes for one year. I make a point
of planting everywhere as closely as possible:
first, because the trees thrive better thus; secondly,
because I can utilize such a plantation as a nur-
sery later on by the removal every year of a part
of the young plants which have been too closely
set. The quick-growing trees that have grown
higher, such as poplars, alders, acacias, etc., should
be distributed here and there, always with due
regard to the soil, thereby giving from the be-
ginning a more finished appearance to the whole
mass, but these should be cut down for under-
brush later on, the nobler species, the oaks, lin-

' If there is a foot of earth on top and only sand below, the trench-
ing should not be so deep, as it is a good idea to keep the roots as much
as possible in the rich earth.

64 Hints on Landscape Gardening

dens, beeches, chestnuts, etc., being given the
preference. I consider it inadvisable to plant too
small and too young specimens, partly for their
own welfare and partly to avoid waste of time.
Therefore, I seldom take for the purpose trees
less than five or six feet high, and I also use only
shrubs that have acquired some bushiness. It is
hardly necessary to remark that, in general, ex-
tended nurseries are most important in all grounds,
or at least should be found in the neighborhood.'

It is to this simple method that I attribute the
fact that my plantations, according to many visi-
tors, as a rule have, after two or three years, the
appearance of ten or fifteen years’ growth, and
at the same time have served for a considerable
period.

For two or three years only I have the new
plantations in the park weeded and raked, and
after that no more. This is to keep the surface
roots undamaged and also to save expense. The
plantations are then left alone, except that they
are gradually thinned out, either by taking away
trees entirely, or by cutting down others so that
the fresh growth will form underwood. In course
of time one can, with the greatest ease, give
plantations so arranged every variety required,
making them a thicket impenetrable to the eye,
or a forest of a slender growth which will unfold
itself in spreading foliage, allowing peeps into

^ I cannot refrain from mentioning here the magnificent nursery in
Potsdam and congratulating its founder. Head Gardener Lenne, for all
that he has accomplished in this branch of gardening with such tireless
energy.

Photograph by Thomas W. Sears

A Vista in the Park of Muskau

Trees and Shrubs

65

the depths, or break into dappled light and shade
over a small, open plot of meadow in beautiful,
wavy lines, or out of all these combine a mingled
effect of many kinds of scenery.

In the park I avail myself, as a rule, of native
or thoroughly acclimated trees and shrubs, and
avoid all foreign ornamental plants, for idealized
Nature must still be true to the character of the
country and climate to which it belongs so as to
appear of spontaneous growth and not betray the
artifice which may have been used. We have
many beautiful flowering shrubs growing wild
in Germany which should be freely used, while
a centifolia rose, a Chinese lilac, or a clump of
such shrubs in a spot in the middle of a wild
wood strike us unpleasantly as an affectation un-
less they are found by themselves in an enclosed
space, as, for instance, in a little garden near a
cottage which sufficiently indicates the neighbor-
hood and hand of man. Some foreign trees, such
as white pines, acacias, larches, planes, locusts,
purple beeches, may be regarded as native,
though I prefer for our country lindens, oaks,
maples, beeches, alders, elms, chestnuts, ash,
birch, etc.

Varieties of poplar which are very useful in
the beginning on account of their rapid growth,
I remove in the course of time, as their branches
are too straggly and their grayish green too som-
ber; yet modifications occur easily; silver poplars,
for example, relieved against any dark wood,
making a pleasant variation, and old Canadian

66 Hints on Landscape Gardening

poplars often overhang lower shrubs very prettily
and also add to the height of different parts of
the group.

The Lombardy poplars had better be entirely
removed from the park, but in the “ pleasure-
ground ” they produce a not unpleasing effect
when grouped in large masses. Singly their shape
is too stiff and unpicturesque, and used in alleys
they are a real horror.

On the whole, I try to arrange the larger
plantations so that in each section one kind of
tree dominates, and, of course, that one of the
kind for which the soil is most suitable, but I
try to avoid having a whole division with only
one kind of tree. This mode of planting is very
popular in our German gardens, where the vari-
ous kinds of trees, especially evergreens and de-
ciduous trees, are as anxiously separated in groups
in connected plantations as if contagion were to
be feared from one species of tree to another.
All this, perhaps, may be said to produce a gran-
diose, though hardly a gay, effect, but in my
opinion, on the contrary, it gives just the appear-
ance of a harlequin’s jacket. Nor is such a pro-
ceeding in any way founded on Nature. Where
Nature, left to herself on an area, relatively as a
park, has sown a thousand kinds of trees and
shrubs in one climatic temperature, it stands to
reason that they must have been much mingled
together. Here and there a group maybe found
making a little wood, as it were, of the same
tree, quite naturally, but the systematic separa-

Trees and Shrubs

67

tion of the different kinds of trees is the most
unnatural arrangement imaginable.

There is nothing more beautiful and more in
accordance with untrammeled Nature than a
luxurious mixed forest where the sun dances
among the many hues of green, and nothing
more monotonous and dismal than a district
where one passes now a clump of firs, then a
long stretch of larches, here a patch of birches,
and in another place a collection of poplars or
oaks, and a thousand paces on the same tedious
rows beginning again. It is entirely different in
the case of large forests of aged trees, where, in
the end, as in the world of men, the dominating
species oppress the weaker, and yet one may see
in a fruitful soil, even in a wild state, the fir
pairing with the oak, the birch with the alder,
the beech with the lime, and the thornbushes
with all kinds of deciduous trees.

As regards the latter, I have always kept in
mind the advice of Mr. Repton, the eminent
garden expert, seldom to plant a tree without
giving it a brier as a protector. Although this
rule must not be taken literally, yet it is a most
useful one both for protecting and for giving
variety to the plantation.

I need hardly recommend that all blossoming
and berry-bearing plants, such as wild fruit trees,
thorns, hips, peonies, mountain ash, barberries,
alders, etc., must be brought forward to the bor-
ders and made conspicuous, but one must be
careful not to make the intention too obvious

68 Hints on Landscape Gardening

by overdoing this work. Nor should the highest
trees be always placed in the center and rows of
shrubs always along the edges, as most of our
gardeners do. The outline of the plantation
should, on the contrary, be interrupted by trees
trimmed high, especially where the road leads
close by them, and trees with low-hanging
branches should be set farther back. Often, too,
where there is room, one should strive after that
graceful negligence, so difficult to emulate, in
which Nature remains ever the mistress, by the
plantation of single shrubs and trees scattered
freely over the grass. So also the clumps in the
“ pleasure-ground,” as I shall presently attempt
to describe, should show the greatest variety, not
only in the species, but also with regard to their
form and situation. Here also it is, as I have
said, not always necessary to place the largest
trees in the middle and the lower-growing ones
graded down to the border. The contrary has a
far more natural appearance, and a tall tree ris-
ing high out of the bushes along the edge and a
broken line of greenery is more picturesque, even
in small groups, than masses always rounded and
sloping gradually on each side and which would
be improved by being broken up. The drawing
in Plate IV shows an inferior, and what I have
indicated as the better, way, a and b for wood
plantations near the paths, and c and d for shrub-
beries in the grass plots.

How far one may plant with the deliberate
intention of attaining artistic light and shade and

Trees and Shrubs

69

color contrast, I will not venture to state. The
matter presents great difficulties, and in my ex-
perience these attempts, if I went too far into
detail, have seldom succeeded very well, and, on
the other hand, plantations mixed quite recklessly
often unfolded the most unexpected charms ; nay,
they earned me many compliments for my art
wherein I was as innocent as many a physician
who has effected a great cure without knowing
how he did it. I do not lay much stress on any
instructions in this matter, as I have always taken
an easy middle course. It must also be remem-
bered that the foliage of trees will often assume
an entirely and unexpected shade when trans-
planted to a different soil, and this cannot always
be regulated in a large plot. It may happen that
a dark-colored maple intended for shading grows
a very light foliage. It is quite obvious, however,
that one should avoid too variegated a mixture
of leaves, too frequent alternations of dark and
light green foliage, but here also, where it would
be hard to lay down good, sharp rules in detail,
the taste of the owner must be the best guide. One
of the greatest difficulties in all plantations is to
give to the edges a natural and graceful outline.*
Many excellent examples of forest plantations
are found in England, and I may be excused for
referring to the park of Lord Darnley, in Cob-

' The outlines are generally indicated by sticks set in the ground at
short intervals. The effect may be still better judged by outlining the
shape on the grass with cords and running a furrow along this outline.
This furnishes an easy means of judging, and, if necessary, altering, the
shape. <

JO Hints on Landscape Gardening

ham, which really leaves nothing to be desired
in this respect and may be recommended to all
strangers for study. But as far as pleasure-ground
plantations go, the well-known architect, Mr.
Nash, has only recently, in my estimation, pre-
sented the right way, and in the Gardens of
Buckingham Palace, the new palace of the King,
and also in Virginia Water, has established one
of the most magnificent examples. In passing, I
may say that I consider Windsor Park, with the
new grounds of Virginia Water, one of the most
perfect examples in England. In its extension
and variety it forms a complete and splendid
landscape. Castle and park have become, by the
munificence and splendor of the late King, the
worthiest seat for the most powerful monarch
on earth.

It is a pity that, at the time of my visit, ac-
cess to the finest part where George IV resided
was so difficult to obtain ; however, the liberality
of the present King will have surely changed all
this. His late Majesty so shunned the eyes of
strangers that in many places, where an indis-
creet glance might possibly penetrate, a second
and even a third story of boards was erected and
nailed to the wooden fence which surrounds the
park. Whoever did not have the personal ac-
quaintance of His Majesty, or had not special
connections, or who did not care to spin out a
kind of intrigue, could not approach Virginia
Water. For the garden-lover this was doubly to
be deplored, because the King was not only, as

Windsor Castle

Trees and Shrubs

71

his worshipers declared, the first “gentleman”
in the land, but deserves to be called one of the
most tasteful landscape artists in England.

The English are greatly favored by their cli-
mate, which permits all kinds of evergreens to
live safely through the winter, such as rhododen-
dron, cherry laurel, Portuguese laurel, all vari-
eties of holly, arbutus, viburnum, buxus, and
'Daphne laureola, etc., which at all times furnish
ready material for thick flowering and beauti-
fully shaded shrubberies.

The usual way for planting has hitherto been,
and still is, even now, in famous places like Chis-
wick and others, to arrange either oval or round
clumps on the lawn and draw long, wavy lines,
(or have strips of grass of an even width) along
the paths, which are always marked off by a
clean-cut border, and back of this appears the
black soil of quite elevated beds which are care-
fully raked clean. The shrubs are also severely
pruned so that they hardly touch one another.
Flowers are set here and there in order to give
more color to the plantation, but the result of it
largely is that one sees so much black earth in-
stead of green color that a disagreeable vacilla-
tion between formality and natural irregularity
is apparent. Mr. Nash has entirely abandoned
this kind of arrangement. He masses the shrubs
more closely together, allows the grass to disap-
pear in wide sweeps under the plants, or lets it
run along the edges of the shrubs without trim-
ming them. At the same time he sets a number

72 Hints on Landscape Gardening

of isolated trees and shrubs on the lawn beside
the plantation in order to interrupt the lines nat-
urally from all sides. These shrubberies are then
neither raked nor trimmed except where neces-
sary for their growth ; hence, they soon develop
into a thicket that gracefully bends over the lawn
without showing anywhere a sharply defined out-
line, just as bushes in the wild state grow and
shape themselves on the edge of a meadow. No
tender bedding flowers can be employed in this
way, since they demand continuous attention,
nor are they necessary, since the English climate
produces, besides the beautiful rhododendrons
and the many species of roses, a sufficient num-
ber of hardy perennial plants to give variety to
the plantation ; and the flowers are massed in
the flower gardens where regularity is entirely
in order. For further explanation see Plate IV,
where the sketch e shows the border plantations
in the old style, andyj Mr. Nash’s method.

In our climate and less productive soil, where
even the commonest varieties of roses suffer from
cold or are quite destroyed by the frost, a middle
course must be found, since we can hardly pro-
duce ornamental shrubberies without resorting to
herbaceous plants and annuals. For a long time,
therefore, I have managed in general my planta-
tions in the same way that Mr. Nash has done,
while leaving, here and there in the shrubberies,
places prepared for hardy herbaceous plants,
which, though ugly in the early spring, are
bright with color in summer and autumn, our

Plate IV. e. Border Plantations in the Old Style

f. Border Plantations after Nash’s Method

Trees and Shrubs

73

season for the country, whereas in England this
season is more often in the winter. On the other
hand, in the flower garden, where the health of
herbaceous plants demands it and formality is
quite out of place, I maintain the old style which
I have described in the shrubberies, though
within bounds, and with this difference, that I
conceal the black earth as much as possible by
flowering perennial plants.

To the flower beds themselves I give a distinct,
defined shape and surround them preferably by
basket-work ; sometimes I make use of ironwork,
or sometimes of wooden borders bound with
cord, earthenware, tiles, leaf-shaped or other-
wise ; also borders of merely plaited osiers with
an overhanging arch on which I train flowering
vines, etc. Flower beds, star- and rosette-shaped,
surrounded by box borders, big vases, French
parterres with gravel walks and elegant flower
stands, — all these are here in place with appro-
priate surroundings.

From what I have said one sees that Mr.
Nash is at bottom an innovator only in this, that
he has applied to the “ pleasure-ground ” (that
is, the larger garden which represents something
midway between park and garden) the same
principles that hold good in all wild wood and
shrub plantations ; namely, that the true line of
beauty of the exterior of a plantation must lie in
imperceptible transitions, sharp angles, and deep
recesses, here and there in almost straight lines,
broken, however, by single projecting trees and

74 Hints on Landscape Gardening

shrubs which bind them loosely together. This
does not mean to employ that ideal wavy line
called more accurately, “ corkscrew ” form, which
is the most unnatural of all and which impedes
any effect of light and shade, the greatest secret
of landscape painting. Besides, in spite of its
twists, when seen in front it presents only a
meaningless zigzag without any character. Sharp
corners, on the other hand, seldom do harm, as
they always become rounded in time by vegeta-
tion. Finally, after the first two years, when the
needful cultivation, weeding, etc., have been
done, I sow grass on the borders of the planta-
tions and wherever a bare place shows itself be-
tween the shrubs, until every trace of abruptness
in the dividing line disappears, and the most nat-
ural and spontaneous connection between meadow
and wood is created.

Wherever the path leads through the planta-
tion, either the plantation is brought quite close
to the edge or a border of grass is made to lose
itself naturally in the shrubbery.

It is only in the flower garden that I permit a
continuous border cut regularly to one width;
this even is broken here and there by a border
of box or violets, etc. Evergreens should not, as
a rule, be placed close to the roads, since they
may have to be trimmed high for the benefit of
the passer-by, thereby losing their beauty, and,
moreover, no grass will grow underneath them.
But they are often very ornamental if set far
enough back from the border of the walk or

Trees and Shrubs

75

drive to permit them to spread out their branches.
These rules also admit of exceptions, and I take
occasion here once for all to warn against pe-
dantry. Nulla regula sine excepfione. But to allow
one’s self exceptions, one must all the more be
familiar with the rule. Thus, it is not advisable
in the long run to increase by the addition of
young trees plantations which have grown old.
They are apt neither to look well nor do well;
yet at times it is necessary. In that case a por-
tion of the older trees should be removed and
some rather large specimens of the younger trees
planted in wedge form in gradation, whereby the
transition from the old to the new soon disap-
pears. For the same reason some of the older
and inferior trees on the border should often be
cleared away and replaced by a younger growth
until the disagreeable sharpness of the division is
quite lost.

I will add a few words here on the shrubberies
made up of flowering shrubs and perennial plants
and annuals : —

(1) It is better in general, but not always, to
group one kind in connected masses instead of
planting too many single and isolated specimens.

(2) With such masses it is especially advisable
to cover over conspicuous points of shrubbery
with a lower growth, connecting it with higher
shrubs in such a manner that these shrubs shall
not stand detached and appear intentionally
placed there.

(3) Only those plants should be grouped to-

Hints on Landscape Gardening

gether which have in the beginning the same
relative height that they attain in proportion to
one another when full grown ; for instance, do
not set a young white lilac one foot high with a
grown Persian lilac four feet high, because the
relative proportions of the two would before long
be reversed.

If all plants are mixed as they happen to grow,
young and old together, they will, of course,
finally come to their full stature, but for a con-
siderable time they will make a confused, and
therefore undesirable, effect. In explanation see
the accompanying vignette, which shows a mix-
ture of shrubs blooming in the spring and sum-
mer.

This model can, of course, be varied indefi-
nitely, though a dozen different patterns might
be sufficient, which, as a matter of convenience
and approved effectiveness, might be repeated in
part or entire throughout the “ pleasure-ground.”
I wager that no one will notice that there are
only twelve different patterns, but a garden de-
signed in accordance with this principle will pro-
duce a much greater variety of effects than one
where the patterns are indiscriminately mixed,
although the latter should contain a much greater
variety of plants. Besides, one may, if one will,
take twenty-four instead of twelve such patterns,
but should always proceed methodically, for with-
out this precaution, nothing succeeds in art.

The pattern I have given is a very simple one
with only the most ordinary kinds of plants that

L^hnis\^iariaf3. pleno rrfU. s/tat

Swings perficft Wa-.

Campanilla medium rrrrrncr>..-,^^>^f^7rrrrr-r^i Atn^Slaa, s/iät

CiHifod «l<n^|atVL3

SSbdn^ -vutgio-is fl. coer uleo -■^•■.v... .■■f;.'<-^.-.-..-.-^ M/Jlasi-, jhi^

LiHtim buBaifemim ^ ■■ y. onm^e,

K«bun odoratus ......T.T7.vv.y.-.:r.. Tvffr, spät

Spiraea l^^pericifolia -rii-T-rrr— — jhlh

Lomeesa tarCanea fl. rtdn’o, Tvih iruTi

' Kibe* aareum ^uJ^

* Lnaaria vederiva ■-. spät

*’ Rosa cent^Ha. spät

? «Idmsi«* .. -.%^-r:Tr«-.v*-r=-r« fn/Tt

'( S^^in^a -vulj^ajria K. aibo /r,uß, ftiä/

/Ip. Khus Cotmug traun. spät:

Potesiilla irutieesa ^dä. spät:

^ Syringa -vulgaris fl. mbro Muar^ ytvä/

>/S. Spiraea i‘alicif©lia.Ärubro..^.-5.«-j.^.-,.^r'.— .-r..^-^-.. sp4l

/ß Isritßsüdt/u> Mi;äai/ resa-. spät.

2ß ßeth^tmd^ TVthe'

Bipaver ibracteata '/urärciA; ßiät-

^ iHladelpkus coronarius spät

3ä Craetaegua 02da caiitha ß, pleno nibro ... danksShsf spät-

M Co!Mtea,arbore0ens ...,«ac-=fsss*s«nr"i^^ S^t, spät.

fapaver Irracteata . . ^ ■ .pv»-» i"» . .-.g^ /uxAsviAi Jru'^

ß1rst7itypfr/it Ittät/i/ .. - rosof. spat

^p- 7u2flt/ls .-rm i ■ ■ -j» . . I— - . ....f <^eZä unsl rtih. ßüA

ßiS fuuA/zss-dusc/i anäc/T .?amnter^?um^ ?seri:^n( iunt^ spät-

Plate XLIII. A Diagram showing Arrangement of Shrubs and Herbaceous Plants

Trees and Shrubs

77

any one can obtain. Here is a proper field for
the ladies, who may transfer their embroidery
patterns in animated form into their gardens with
free play to their innate fine sense of color.

A FINAL WORD ON AVENUES

I by no means condemn regularity for ave-
nues, though they rarely look well planted in this
way until the trees have attained to a ripe old
age. But trees so planted are useful for various
purposes, such as a border for highways, for
avenues to large palaces, etc. Three points, how-
ever, must be observed here : first, the avenues
should be very wide, avoiding long stretches of
straight lines; second, a double row of trees
should be set rather closely together on either
side wherever possible, these two rows being sub-
sequently again thinned out so as to permit the
remaining trees to attain to their normal growth ;
third, only trees suitable for the purpose should
be taken ; that is, trees that are shapely, perma-
nent, and that throw a good shade. In our coun-
try elms and oaks in sandy soil, lindens, chest-
nuts, or maples in richer soil, and acacias in
protected positions. Money laid out on the soil
in the beginning to prepare it for the finer kinds
of trees is well spent, since poplars and birches,
which grow anywhere, are ugly in avenues and
not so enduring as other trees. Following a sug-
gestion which I brought home from Chelten-
ham, I am trying on my estate a method which

Hints on Landscape Gardening

has so far not been applied to avenues, but from
which I expect the best results, especially in a
sandy region like ours. I run a furrow, wide or
narrow according to the locality, along both
sides of the road, which, following the English
way, slopes toward both sides with subterranean
drainage where necessary and a few side gutters.
This furrow is closely packed with young trees
as in a grove, mixing in with them here and
there groups of larger trees which form a kind
of continuous, irregular avenue rising above the
undergrowth. Where I do not own the adjacent
ground, I continue^ these high groups without
the undergrowth in a narrow strip along the
road. (See Plate IV, g.) The trees are generally
treated as undergrowth or underbrush and are
pruned every six or ten years, while the larger
trees are left to grow undisturbed. In this way
even barren regions will soon appear attractive
when seen from the road ; and a variety of effects
may be produced subsequently by various differ-
ent modes of treatment, allowing larger masses
to grow high, carefully trimming some of the
older trees, keeping others down, etc., or, finally,
the landscape, where it is unattractive, may be
hidden by a wall of greenery. Should some of the
larger trees that have been set out die off in the
course of time, or not thrive well, the neighbor-
ing trees may be allowed to grow up, and in this
case any kind of tree that thrives well may be
used. This mode of treatment will do away with
unsightly bare spaces and make a natural avenue

Trees and Shrubs

79

which will lighten in appearance the most bar-
ren of heath and pine woods, forming an easy
transition between them, while the long rows of
soldier-like Lombardy poplars which one sees far
off through the black pines brings genuine de-
spair to any one who has the remotest idea of the
picturesque. For myself, at least, when my ill
star leads me along such avenues I try to escape
this desolate feeling by closing my eyes and forc-
ing myself to sleep.

Chapter VIII

Roads and Raths

Roads and paths should be, above all, firm,
and as dry as possible. Were I writing this
book for English readers I could pass over this
point entirely, since the construction of the roads
there is fairly adequate, but, as we are still very
much behind in this respect, a few words on the
technical aspect of this question will not, I think
be superfluous at the end of this chapter. Good
roads and paths are, of course, expensive, and
this, as I was frequently told, is the chief reason
why there are so few roads and paths in English
parks and a drive entirely round the estate so
seldom to be found, and often, where a path
leads from the “pleasure-ground” into the park,
it stops suddenly at the iron fence which encloses
the former and from that point one has to wade
painfully through wet grass and other disagree-
able features. We could, considering the differ-
ent value of money in the two countries, get
much more from the outlay if we should follow
different methods. For what is the good of a
park that presents the same recurring picture
from a few points of view, a park where I am
never led, as by an invisible hand, to the most
beautiful spots, seeing and comprehending the

Roads and Paths

8i

picture in its entirety and at my ease ? This is
the purpose of roads and paths, and while they
should not be unnecessarily multiplied, too many
are better than too few. Roads and paths are the
dumb conductors of the visitor and should serve
in themselves to guide him easily toward every
spot which can afford enjoyment. Roads and
paths, therefore, should not be too conspicuous,
but should be carefully laid out and concealed by
plantations : I mean too conspicuous in the Eng-
lish sense, where a property of one thousand acres
has only one or two main roads or paths ; yet the
opposite system of our imitation English gardens,
where often two or three adjacent paths all show
the same points of view and lead to the same
spot, is also very objectionable.

It follows from what I have said elsewhere
that the roads and paths should not run in con-
tinual curves like a serpent wound round a stick,
but should rather make such bends as serve a de-
finite purpose easily and effectively, following as
far as possible the natural contours of the ground.
Certain aesthetic rules dictate these bends in
themselves, and hence in places obstacles must
be set up where they do not naturally occur in
order to make the graceful line appear natural.
For instance, two curves close together in the same
road or path seen at the same time do not look
well. If this cannot be entirely avoided, then a
sharp turn should be relieved by a larger, more
rounded turn, and the former should seem justi-
fied by trees or plantations on the inner side, or

82 Hints on Landscape Gardening

by elevations where the road or path is appar-
ently more easily led around than over them.
(See Plate V, a, b, c, and d.')

If there is no obstacle the road should be al-
lowed to run straight or only slightly curved, no
matter what the distance. Wherever an obstacle
appears, it is better to make a short turn close to
it than a long, gradual turn for the sake of the
so-called curve of beauty. The sharp turns are
by far the more picturesque, especially if the
road disappears with such a turn in the depths of
a forest. Nor should a road running parallel with
another be visible from it unless there is a dis-
tinct division of hill and valley between, or a dip
in the ground, for without this natural division
two adjacent paths leading in the same direction
appear superfluous, especially when they are on
the same level, for the mind must recognize the
fitness of the details before the eye will be satis-
fied by the entire picture.

In a landscape of wide sweep, especially, the
form given to the grass plots by the enclosing
roads must be carefully considered. One may
entirely spoil an extensive territory by a short
piece of road badly arranged. I call to mind one
example which first attracted my attention to this
point. There is a hill in my park which extends
out conspicuously into a wide stretch of meadow,
thereby apparently dividing it into two equal
parts. The river flows along this entire stretch of
country and a road follows its course. (See ground-
plan, Plate V, e.') Observe particularly the line of

Plate V. Arrangements of Roads and Paths

Roads and Paths

83

the ridge indicated by the shading in the plan,
being the most conspicuous object in the neigh-
borhood, as well as the two markedly divided
portions of the meadows which are overlooked
by a certain building on the height. Another
road leads to this building along the upper side,
and for the sake of convenience I required a foot-
path connecting the two roads which had to be
at the left side leading to the castle. I first laid
it down as in Plate V, where the ascent is eas-
iest, this being the line it would follow in ac-
cordance with ordinary rules; yet I was never
satisfied with it, and although I changed the line
ten times, the path persisted in spoiling the har-
mony of the view. It finally occurred to me that,
since the hill once for all conspicuously divided
the prospect into two almost symmetrical por-
tions, the path interrupting the stretch of
meadow would have to follow the same direction
so as not to destroy the harmony, or, so to speak,
the balance, of the picture; for there is a certain
kind of undefined, hidden symmetry in which
there is no contradiction whatever, but which,
in order to produce a satisfactory effect, must be
evident in every expanded arrangement of this
kind. As soon as I changed the line of the path
in agreement with this principle (see x), the
matter was arranged satisfactorily. It may take
a practiced eye to understand this point on the
plan, but the advantages gained by the change
may be perceived by any one on the ground.

Drives should be laid out so that chief points

84 Hints on Landscape Gardening

of interest and the most noteworthy objects in
the entire park may be visited one after another
without passing the same object twice — at least
not in the same direction — on the round trip.
This problem is frequently a peculiar one to solve.
I may say I have given a good example in my
park and it has cost me almost as much labor as
the building of labyrinths may have cost our an-
cestors. The footpaths also must run into one
another with this end in view, affording many
separate paths, apparently undesigned, which
should be connected so as to leave a wide lati-
tude of choice. Where one or several of the
main roads or paths through the park are in-
tended to serve as an approach (as it is called in
English) to the castle or dwelling-house, it should
be concealed for a time to make the road appear
long and more extended ; but once the destina-
tion has come into view, it is not well to allow
the road to turn off any more unless there be a
mountain or lake or other palpable obstacle for
which the road must deviate.

The customary drive around the whole park
should in every respect be the opposite of the
encircling belt as designed by Brown (which I
have already censured), which runs continually
on and on by a monotonous plantation around the
wall. This driveway should, on the contrary, be
laid out so that the vicinity of the boundary is
nowhere suspected ; therefore, relatively large
plots of grass, visible if possible at one glance,
should be massed between the boundary line and

Roads and Paths

8s

the park road, and while the latter should lead
to the finest spots in the domain, it should also
quite as often open out views (over the hidden
fence) outside of the park as well as inside. This
can be managed, as was described in Chapter III
(“Enclosure”), by a ha-ha or some other de-
vice. Care must be taken also, by the appropri-
ate placing and disposition of the plantations, to
make the roads, as one goes in and out, present
different views. This obviously doubles their in-
terest and can be achieved by the disposition of
the bordering plantations, which, so to speak,
should compel the visitor to see one part of the
landscape on arrival and another on departure.
At any specially fine point it is well to lead the
road for some time in full view of it, to allow
one to enjoy it more completely and not to let
it be visible merely to a hasty glance whereby
its beauties can be easily overlooked.

I hold it to be unnecessary to make the roads
in a park as broad as in a highway, only five or
six feet wide for footpaths and ten to fourteen
feet for drives. For public gardens another scale
of widths may be advisable.

The construction of drives and footpaths in a
park is very much the same, the whole difference
lying in the thickness of the stone foundation. I
have myself taken the following course with the
best and most durable results : —

The bed for both path and drive must first be
dug out two, one, or only half a foot deep re-
spectively, and where there are watercourses, or

86 Hints on Landscape Gardening

water is liable to gather, a drain with sufficient
inclination must be built underneath, also lateral
drains leading into it from both sides of the road
protected from above by an iron grating, through
which the water may run down freely. Where
there are steep banks along the drive or path,
stone gutters may be built alongside of them be-
tween the drains so as to prevent the earth from
being swept away, or if the stone gutters are too
expensive the same purpose may be attained by
using a mixture of tar and rosin. In the park I
sometimes have opened ditches, constructed to
save expense on one or both sides of the road,
and slanting ridges in the park itself, which
serve the same purpose, but do not look so well.
Where there is little water to be considered, one
need not wall up the subterranean drains, but
simply fill them up with large field stones or lay
them with the hollow tiles I have spoken of in
Chapter VI, in the section on the drainage of
meadows. For the drives, stones broken as small
as possible (in my park granite stones) are laid
six inches thick and stamped with broad wooden
stampers in order to make them assume a slightly
arched form, and on this spread fine coal ashes,
mixed with broken brick, two inches deep ;
this is again pounded together with old plaster
and building refuse ; then an inch of coarse river
gravel. Finally, the whole is heavily rolled with
iron or stone rollers. The last part of the work,
the covering with the gravel and the rolling, is
generally repeated every year, or, at least, every

Roads and Paths

87

two years. Such a road is sufficiently strong to
bear any travel imposed upon a parkway and has
an advantage over the macadamized roads built
in England in that it is smooth and even as soon
as it is finished and is pleasant for driving, while
the macadamized roads, which consist entirely
of broken granite, are comfortable only after con-
siderable travel has smoothed them down, being
at first very hard on horses and foot travelers, and
even later broken edges of the stone will always
protrude here and there.

Footpaths I build on the same principle, ex-
cept that I often take only coal ashes or broken
clinkers, mixed with plaster or building refuse,
instead of the broken stone, and cover all with
fine gravel. (See Plate V, f, the transverse section
of the road, and g, the surface.) In localities
where the brownish, so-called “ Windsor gravel ”
is found, — in England only in a few districts
of the kingdom, — it forms a compact mass, and
is not disturbed by moisture as easily as loam.
In order to make a good path, it is only neces-
sary to dump a six-inch layer of this Windsor
gravel over the drain ; it is as smooth as a par-
quet floor, never requires weeding, and needs
only to be picked up and rolled every spring. If
one does not possess this excellent gravel, the
yellowish-brown color of which stands out so
well against the green of the lawn, the drives
must be weeded as often as twice or thrice a year,
which, however, is necessary only on the borders,
and which, as well as the clipping of the grass

88 Hints on Landscape Gardening

edges, can be done by women, and consequently
need not be very expensive. It is possible that
the building refuse which I recommend as bind-
ing material encourages vegetation, especially
when the roads are little used. The advantage,
however, so much outweighs the disadvantage
that, lacking the clay gravel, I know no better
way for constructing a road. I have formerly at-
tempted, by a mixture of dried clay and coarse
river gravel, to manufacture the Windsor gravel
artificially, but the result is seldom satisfactory,
as the mixture easily goes wrong, and then does
not bind sufficiently. Later on I was lucky in
finding a gravel similar in color and other prop-
erties to the Windsor gravel. For economy one
can also make use of what we call here “Gov-
ernment roadways,” — that is, clay with ordinary
gravel spread over it, — but with continuous wet
weather and in winter these roads are always bad.

The gravel paths must in summer be swept
with brooms, and in wet weather must some-
times be rolled, and will then be always in good
condition, except, perhaps, on thawing after a
cold winter; but even after a very heavy shower
they are quite dry again. Only, I repeat, it is an
essential condition that sufficient outlet be fur-
nished for proper drainage of water.

Grass drives and paths also, which can be made
by laying grass sods, must have on top of the
stone foundation half a foot of earth under the
grass and be protected with covered or open
drains to last well for riding ; they are then more
agreeable than paved roads.

Roads and Paths

89

Finally, I may remark that for the subsoil of
a road sand is the best ; even swampy ground is
better than heavy, impenetrable clay, which will
not allow water readily to pass through.

If, later on, depressions and bad spots show
themselves, these need only to be picked up,
freshly spread with coal ashes, builder’s waste,
and gravel, and be well pounded. In very bad
weather, especially in spring, the earth that has
been loosened by vehicles should be scraped off,
and as soon as dry weather sets in the yearly
quota of gravel should be spread over, the river
running through my park conveniently furnish-
ing the necessary material.

The chief rules for roads are thus limited to
the following : —

( 1 ) Lay them out so that they lead insensibly
to the finest views.

(2) They should form an attractive and prac-
tical line.

(3) They should divide the spaces through
which they run into picturesque sections if those
spaces arc visible in their whole extent.

(4) They should never make a turn without
the requisite obstacle that necessitates it.

(5) Finally, they should be well constructed
and should always be hard, smooth, and dry.

I am convinced that whoever accurately fol-
lows these rules will not be dissatisfied with the
result, and if the locality is at all favorable, the
expense will be found to be considerably less
than, perhaps, is expected.

Chapter IX

Water

Though not so indispensable to landscape
as a rich vegetation, fresh and clear water,
whether stream or lake, greatly increases its charm.
Eye and ear are equally delighted, for who does
not hearken with delight to the sweet murmur of
the brook, the distant plashing of the mill wheels,
the prattling of the pearly spring ? Who has not
been enchanted in quiet hours by the perfect
calm of the slumbering lake in which the giants
of the forest are dreamily mirrored, or by the
aspect of foaming waves, chased by the storm,
where the sea-gulls merrily rock? But it is very
difficult for the artist to conquer Nature here,
or to impose on her what she herself has not
created on the spot.

Therefore, I would advise to leave undone
altogether a faulty imitation. A region without
water can still present many beauties, but a bad-
odored swamp infects every one ; the first is only
a negative fault ; the second a positive, and, with
the exception of the owner himself, nobody will
take a cesspool of this kind for a lake, or a stag-
nant ditch overgrown with duckweed for a stream.
But if one can by any means guide a running
stream into one’s own property, if the terrain

Water

91

gives any prospect of it, one should do one’s ut-
most, and forego neither expense nor pains to ac-
quire such a great advantage ; for nothing offers
such an endless variety to the beholder as does
the element of water.

But in order to give water, artificially ob-
tained, whatever form it may take, a natural,
unforced appearance, much trouble is necessary.
In the whole art of landscape gardening, per-
haps nothing is more difficult to accomplish.
Englishmen are very backward in this matter ;
even the ornamental waters of Repton, their best
landscape artist, which I have seen, failed in many
respects. Mr. Nash alone has given us a few fine
samples — Regent’s Park in London among
others.*

His work in St. James’s Park is less successful,
though the task here was perhaps an impossible
one on account of the small territory. His mode
of procedure, as he explained it to me, was as
simple as it was ingenious. He had the entire
surface of the ground surveyed, noting all the
dips and elevations, to learn where an inunda-
tion might find its natural bed. From this he
constructed in a natural manner the form of his
artificial waters, only digging out the ground
where necessary. He thus obtained the double
advantage of a more natural outline and less ex-
pensive work. In most parks of the well-to-do

* It is possible that equally good examples are to be found in the
celebrated work of Loudon and of Mr. Kennedy. I do not know these,
however.

92 Hints on Landscape Gardening

English, the waters are still the parties honteuses^
or eye-sores of the whole, often slimy, very sel-
dom quite concealing their artificial origin.

Several of the rules which I have given for
laying out roads and for the outlines of planta-
tions can be readily applied to the shape of the
water effects. As in the former case one can, ac-
cording to the requirements of the terrain and
the obstacles that occur, bring in sometimes long
and sometimes short, abrupt bends, making pref-
erably rounded corners rather than semicircles,
sometimes even quite sharp turns where the
water is visibly diverted. Both banks of a stream
or brook should follow fairly parallel lines, yet
with various nuances^ which must be decided, not
according to one’s fancy, but by the laws deter-
mined by its course. Two rules hold good al-
most universally : —

(1) The side toward which the stream turns
should have a lower bank than the opposite, be-
cause the higher one diverts it.

(2) Where the current of the water suddenly
becomes swift and yet needs to be turned aside
lest it break bounds if left free, a sharp bend
should be constructed rather than a round one
and a steeper shore should signify the conflict.
But never follow what our gardeners call “noble
lines.”* I suppose the terrain to be the same in

• In Berlin I once saw in a water feature such imaginary lines of
beauty actually following a barrier painted green and on an open lawn,
without any obstacle which would excuse it, running on in regular
curves close by a straight road. This must have doubled the cost with-
out arriving at any result but that of making the owner ridiculous.

Plate VI. Diagrams showing Arrangements of Rivers, Lakes, and Islands

Water

93

both cases. The old practice would give the line
of the stream as illustrated in Plate VI, a; the
student of Nature will try to make it something
like b.

Frequently, larger and smaller promontories,
as well as deep bays tend to give the scene a
natural appearance, and it is equally effective to
vary the height and form of the crown or upper
part of the bank. One must be careful to avoid
high finish in constructing the slope of the bank
in such a way as to betray the artificial work.

An exception to this may be made in the
case of the pleasure-ground ” ; but here also it
would be well to strike a middle course between
Nature and cultivation. (See Plate VI, <r, for the
stiff, and for the more natural, bare bank;
€y for the advantages of variety in the banks on
both sides.) The plantation supplies what is still
lacking and completes the whole by the free play
of the overhanging branches. It would hardly
be possible to give an entirely natural appearance
to an artificial bank without a plantation.

If one would like a larger, more lakelike ex-
panse of water, which is especially desirable in
the view from the mansion, one should so treat
it — partly by means of islands, partly by very
deep bays, the limits of which are mostly con-
cealed in shrubbery — that from no one point
the whole mass of water can be overlooked, but
that everywhere, behind the thick shrubbery, the
water appears to flow onward ; otherwise, every
piece of water will appear small, even though it

94 Hints on Landscape Gardening

should take an hour to walk round it. Open,
grassy banks, single high trees, woods, and thick-
ets should vary the effect with broad spots where
the sunlight can have full entry, in order not to
deprive the water 'of its transparency and bril-
liancy by concealment. A lake whose shores are
entirely in shadow loses much of its effective-
ness, as the water reveals all its magic only under
the full rays of the sun, where the reflections
from above appear to come from the bottom in
transparent, silvery clearness. I have frequently
seen this very necessary rule quite ignored by
unskillful gardeners. The projecting tongues of
land must, for the greater part, run into pointed,
not rounded ends, for I cannot sufficiently dwell
on the fact that no line in picturesque landscape
is more unpropitious than that taken from the
circle, especially in any great extent of space. A
tongue of land which ends quite in a point, and
is at its termination almost in the same line as
the water, and beyond which the water appears
on the other side, makes quite a charming variety,
especially when a few high-branched trees stand
on it, and where one looks through under the
foliage. If any important object stands near, —
a building, hill, or conspicuous tree, — plenty
of room should be given for its reflection in the
water, and attention should be drawn to the pic-
ture shimmering in its depths by a path or bench
placed there for the purpose.

Water plants, reeds, etc., the various species
of irises, and other free-blooming water plants

Water

95

in the “ pleasure-ground,” are extremely useful.
They blend the different parts of the picture in
a light and agreeable way. Reeds are best sown
by kneading the seeds in balls of clay and then
throwing them into the water.

(See, for the above, Plate VI. The form y'is
by no means the worst which I have seen car-
ried out, nor will I say that g is the best for
execution ; but the latter will assuredly make a
more picturesque effect, and from no point of
view will the end of the water be visible, which
is one of the chief considerations.)

Chapter X

Islands

A LONELY spot in a well-wooded island,
or the distant view of a mass of arching
foliage swimming on the crystal surface of the
water, is more attractive to many than all the
charms obtainable on dry land. This pleasure
also must, therefore, be sought and provided
for.

Islands scattered in a large lake or judiciously
arranged in the broad, flowing river are of great
assistance and add much to the beauty of the
whole by their variety. Here, too, the example
of Nature must be very fully studied. It is re-
markable how seldom this is the case, and I can
hardly remember having seen anywhere an arti-
ficial island which did not betray at first glance
its forced, unnatural origin. Thus I recently
found, even in the small celebrated Royal Gar-
dens attached to Buckingham House, which I
have highly praised elsewhere, one which repre-
sented more the picture of a pudding in its sauce
than an island built up by Nature. It is true
that Nature sometimes indulges in peculiar freaks,
but there is always yV ne sals quoi^ which cannot
be attained by mere imitation; therefore, it be-
comes us to follow her rules, not her exceptions.

Islands

97

just as the painter must avoid certain true effects,
merely because, being too rare or too difficult to
represent, they must appear unnatural even if
they should not be so. Here also one may ap-
ply the saying, “ Le vrai souvent nest pas vrai~
semblable.”

Generally, as I have said, artificial islands can
be recognized at the first glance. Their shape is
either oval or round, sloping down equally on all
sides, and planted at random in separate patches.
Nature forms them quite otherwise, seldom by
building up, more frequently by erosion. For
how does an island originate ? It is made by
flowing water, and there are laws for it. Either
a piece of land which has withstood the pressure
of the flood by its height and solidity, or which
has been forcibly torn away, or an eminence
which is quietly surrounded by a stream in its
course, or finally, accumulated soil which has
been borne along by the stream, remains after
the flood has receded as an island above low
water. In the first case sudden declivities and
corners and abrupt, as well as rounded, lines
will appear. (See Plate VII, a.) In the second
and third case (see Plate VII, b'^y the ends will
nearly always be sharply pointed ; a rounded
oval will seldom be the result ; never an entirely
rounded island. Islands in the middle of a stream,
or, at least, those at some distance from the
bank, mostly take the shapes here indicated.
Single obstructions produce different shapes ; for
instance, a break in the side will probably result

98 Hints on Landscape Gardening

in shape c (see Plate VII, c) with some incidental
nuances in the detail of the line.

Where the water flowing swiftly into a basin
forms an island at the inlet, it will take about
the shape of d (Plate VII, ; following the outer
banks, the swiftly flowing stream, by its strong
pressure on both sides, will somewhat round the
ends. But if the river widens into a lake by
gently filling a deep basin, rather than by rush-
ing into it, then e (Plate VII, f) may be assumed
as the natural shape, for here the river does not
round OS' both sides, but forms, in a slow cur-
rent on the right, a long spit on the left bank,
beyond which the quiet water, no longer in a
powerful stream, gently flows round the higher
ground. Very seldom, on the other hand, does
a stream flow into a basin as is generally made
out, after the model of a bottle. (See Plate
VII,/)

Let the surface and shelving of an island on
the same principle be constructed in accordance
with the probable effect of the terrain and the
water which washes it. The equal shelving on
all sides with equality of height throughout is
the commonest mistake. I fell into this error
at first. (See the objectionable form g and the
better form i», in Plate VII; g is bad and h is
good.)

But even the best forms may be bettered by
plantations skillfully arranged, covering the spots
that appear less satisfactory and giving more
variety to the surface without disturbing the

Plate VII. A Diagram showing Different Arrangements of Islands

Islands

99

harmony, concerning which the right feeling
certainly must again decide, united taste and ex-
perience recognizing the proper course, which
cannot be altogether taught by correct rule.
What has been said about shrubberies applies
also to islands, since the former may be consid-
ered as islands of shrubs on the lawn. I append
here only two examples, i and i, which can be
much modified. Islands planted down to the
water’s edge cannot be quite failures, be their
shape what it may, and if the construction is
poor, it is the only alternative. I should never
recommend leaving the island entirely unplanted,
even if it is of a very good form, since the bare
outline of Nature, if I may so express it, is the
most difficult of all to imitate. Finally, one
must confess that, with all our endeavors to em-
ulate Nature, she yet retains in petto something
unattainable, and says to us poor human beings,
“ Thus far and no farther.”

Chapter XI

Rocks

IT is a doubtful task to make rocks, and where
Nature does not supply the real thing in the
neighborhood so that it can be blasted and built
up again in its old form, no one can quite reach
his ideal by any imitation.

But there is a middle course for which Na-
ture likewise supplies models ; that is, masses of
heaped-up stones driven together by floods or
mountain streams, which, without human agency,
present something of a rocky character and are
at least extremely picturesque.

This genre can be well imitated, and one only
needs to be careful to make such piles consistent
by allowing isolated pieces of rock to lie about
in the vicinity and by placing the rocks so that
they emerge from earth, plantation, or water,
and are only partially visible, never in their whole
circumference. They may also occasionally be
connected with a stretch of wall built of blasted
field stone, as if, for some purpose, say recon-
structing a bridge or supporting a steep bank,
one had merely taken advantage of the rocks
which had naturally accumulated and had sup-
plemented the rest with a wall for the same
purpose. This supplies the opportunity to col-

Plate VIII. An Artificial Waterfall with Rock Dam

Rocks

lOI

lect such plants as demand a rocky soil, and
which are often very ornamental, especially near
water, where such rock-work is most desirable
for a bulkhead, dam, strong wall, etc., and in a
large park they are almost indispensable.

A slight artistic touch which can be recom-
mended is to set the stones in a slanting direc-
tion, as if they had been forced up in that
manner, and to make one or more of the edges
stand out conspicuously, which gives the whole
a more picturesque and bold aspect. As an ex-
ample for illustration I append the drawings of
two dams and a supporting wall which have
been built according to these principles on my
estate. (See Plates VIII, IX, and X.)

The dams were built from the foundation, as
far as they were not visible, of brick, in a rock
wall, and then covered and overlapped with
pieces of rock, while, of course, needful care
was taken to obtain the most picturesque fall of
water, which must, by no means, be left to
chance, and also to arrange the shrubberies and
plantations suitably.

Chapter XII

Earthworks and Esplanades

There E not much to be said about this
subject, except that such works should be
avoided as much as possible. The natural un-
evenness of the terrain is, as a rule, more pictur-
esque than inequalities painfully wrought out by
art. Artificial hills generally make little effect,
and should be made only where necessary in
order to obtain a view from their summits, to
give additional height to a plantation, or to
get rid of the earth dug from a lake. The direc-
tions given for islands may be substantially fol-
lowed here, since water has often contributed to
the shaping of the natural elevations, partly
rounding them or partly tearing them away.
The surfaces and sides should be alternated by
steep and more gradual lines without running
into confusion, and plantations should do the
rest.

When fine old trees that you do not wish to
remove happen to stand on a spot to be filled
in, the custom in England is to surround them
with a kind of well constructed of stones, in
which air and moisture can penetrate to the
roots. With oaks, however, this is not necessary.
I have been surprised to find that old as well as

Earthworks and Esplanades

103

young oaks may be buried up to one third of
their height without suffering in the least.

Although in general a certain undulation of
the terrain is advisable, at times an excellent
effect is brought about by making the bottom
of little valleys, having steep surroundings, quite
level. We often find such formations in Nature
which charm us by the contrast.

On meadows, as a rule, here and there the
little ups and downs must be leveled, for practi-
cal reasons as well as appearance, but larger un-
dulations of the terrain should in no case be
unnecessarily disturbed. But if, nevertheless, it
is desirable for other reasons to remove and level
any considerable height, and any fine trees hap-
pen to be standing there which should not be
removed, then I advise leaving them standing
on single small hillocks {tertres) which give the
meadow still more variety, for which reason I
have often deliberately planted in this way and
with good results. In this connection I will add
a remark that would have been more in place
in a former chapter. If it is desired to select the
best point of view from which to see an unusu-
ally fine tree or group of trees, this must be
sought, not at the foot of the group, but from a
point about half its height, if possible from a
steep slope, and at a distance double its height.
It will then appear twice as imposing as if seen
from the foot, where one must look up to it.

In all soil removals, where no gravel plots,
roads, or houses are intended, the humus or top

104 Hints on Landscape Gardening

soil must be carefully removed and spread over
the finished surface again, as everybody knows,
yet I have seen this precaution neglected more
often than one would think.

Chapter XIII

Maintenance

Having explained in the preceding chap-
ters how a landscape may be ennobled and
in a way created by art, I conclude with a few
words as to its maintenance. It is quite impos-
sible to plant a large, extensive park so that it
will present the same picture when full grown
as it did at the beginning, except on an altered
scale, and so that the objects in it shall be for-
ever after in the right relation to one another ;
for Nature cannot be calculated so accurately
and it would also take too much time.

Here we meet with the drawbacks of our art,
in a certain sense, though it may also be regarded
as an advantage. For it is impossible to create a
finished, permanent work of art in landscape
gardening, such as the painter, sculptor, and
architect are able to produce, because our ma-
terial is not inanimate, but living ; we can say
of the landscape gardeners’ art, as of all Nature’s
own pictures, as Fichte said of the German lan-
guage, “ It is about to be, but never is ” ; that
is, it never stands still, can never be fixed and
left to itself. Hence a skillful guiding hand is
always necessary for works of this kind. If the
hand is lacking too long, they not only deterio-

io6 Hints on Landscape Gardening

rate, they become something quite different ; but
if the hand is present, beauties are continually
being added without losing or sacrificing those
already in existence. The chief tool which we
use — that is, our brush and chisel — is the spade
for construction; the chief tool for maintenance and
improvement is the axe. It must not rest for a
single winter, or it will happen to us with the
trees as with the water-carriers in the tale of the
“Wizard’s Apprentice” — they will grow over
our heads.

But the axe is just as necessary for keeping
the plantations everywhere at the right height
as for attaining the right density, for giving them
plenty of air, and for providing against over-
crowding. As, moreover, thinning is the quick-
est and lightest work, and in winter there is not
much else to be done, there is always plenty of
time for it, provided one never misses a year.

To keep large masses of mixed plantations at
a given height one must not, as it were, decapi-
tate them all, but only regularly every year cut
out the highest growth, which then for the
greater part will produce new undergrowth, and
after a certain term of years will begin in turn
to be the highest. In this manner the planta-
tions appear always of the same age and natural
form, a piece of art of which it may be truly
said that it is a pity that it cannot be applied to
mankind.

Where there are narrow vistas, single trees
must be decapitated here and there, but this can

Maintenance

107

be done so that the tree will not be disfigured,
at least, not when it is covered with leaves. The
evergreens must be cut close exactly at the crown
of the branches, — I mean at the base of one
of its yearly growths, — and then the branches
tied together. This conceals the operation very
quickly. With deciduous trees also the branches
must be cut out only where another branch is
growing close by, so that a naked stump is never
left conspicuous. The oftener groups of this sort
are skillfully cut, the less will be the work and
the more thick and natural will they grow. I
repeat, however, that one must not miss any-
thing, and at the outset one should calculate how
high the plantations are intended to be, for after
too long neglect it is difficult to regulate them
without damage.

I have said before that density and vigorous
growth in vegetation can be got only by thin-
ning the plantations. This is most important ;
otherwise one rears nothing but wooden sticks,
which at times may find place in a park for the
sake of variety, but their presence cannot be con-
sidered the rule. For free development on all
sides every plant requires as much light and air
as it can obtain consistently with the health,
density, and luxuriousness of all. This is the
freedom of the trees, that freedom which we
human beings also desire so much for our-
selves.

Large sections of forests, which are not in-
tended to be in the nature of a grove, are treated

io8 Hints on Landscape Gardening

simply in forester’s style; that is, at stated pe-
riods they are thinned out according to the na-
ture of the wood ; with birches, sixty to eighty
(because birches in shade when cut down recover
with difficulty) ; with other kinds, about one
hundred larger trees can be left standing on an
acre. The only alteration which I permit myself
is that the larger trees are left standing, not all
singly, but partly in groups, which is more in
accordance with landscape, if not with forester’s,
principles, with us, of course, the first considera-
tion.

All that I have laid down here applies especi-
ally to landscape on a large scale — to the park.
In the “pleasure-ground” and the gardens one
is justified, by the smaller scale and the far larger
choice of plants (especially the number of shrubs
which serve the purpose), in a looser application
of these rules, for only so much thinning out is
necessary as concerns the health of the plants,
or at times the improvement of their shape.

On the maintenance of meadows I have al-
ready enlarged, and so no further remarks are
necessary except that every year they must be
rolled at least once and if possible twice ; that
moles must be diligently caught; that in spring
and autumn these meadows must be watered ;
and that every three or four years they must be
manured if they are to be always fresh and thick-
set. Rivers and lakes require occasional repairs
when damaged by accidents, but no maintenance.
The more the water gnaws at the shores, and

Maintenance

109

the more the edges are clothed with green and
water plants, the better.

But the cleaning out of ponds which are not
very deep is advisable every three years, partly
to prevent clogging of the bottom with water
mosses and other plants, partly for economy’s
sake, because the collected sediment or mud
makes the best manure for meadows.

I believe I have enumerated herewith all the
chief points in the theory of our profession, land-
scape gardening (although in accordance with
my plan, only partially and in a cursory manner),
and shall pass on to the second practical part
which describes the application of the foregoing
to a particular spot.

K

\

I

PART SECOND

DESCRIPTION OF THE PARK IN
MOSKAU AND ITS ORIGIN

Part Second

Description of the Park in Muskau
and its Origin

I CONFESS that it is with some trepidation
that I begin the present description. Although
this little work, in view of its purely didactic
nature, can make no great pretension to be en-
tertaining, yet it is to be feared that the follow-
ing very dry analysis of certain special conditions
must be tedious in still greater degree than the
foregoing part to any one who does not have a
very personal interest in such undertakings.

Nevertheless, it is a fact that I have taken up
the pen only for this latter class, and less apology
is due them because I found myself obliged, in
order to make the matter readable, to introduce
much that was personal. No doubt it can interest
the great public but little, while those who de-
sire to turn the book to account as a guide and
handbook for their own undertakings may find
in these personal raatters some profit ; for many
will find themselves in similar situations, either
in respect to the whole or in this or that detail,
and will perhaps be less intimidated by difficul-
ties and overcome them more easily when they
see how I succeeded in mastering them.

I must begin by frankly confessing that who-

1 14 Hints on Landscape Gardening

ever should expect to find in Muskau already a
completed, I mean a finished, work, would be
quite disappointed. Hardly a third of the plan
has so far been carried out, although perhaps
three-fourths of the work has been done ; for sel-
dom has a private person had to contend in such
undertakings with greater obstacles than I have.
Among others more than two thousand acres of
the needful terrain were the property of individ-
ual citizens of the town or the neighboring vil-
lages, and we know how difficult it is to acquire
such pieces of land, even at three or four times
their value. Moreover, a whole street in the
small town, which ran directly past my “Schloss”
or castle, had to be bought first, then removed
to suit my plan, and a lake had to be dug on the
spot. A number of large, and in part even magnifi-
cent, buildings belonging to me were so unfortu-
nately situated that they could not remain. Again,
the castle itself was surrounded by ancient fortifi-
cations, deep moats and walls eight to ten feet
thick, which last had been built in the solid old
times of our forefathers, and would have to be
blown up with powder.*

But the work of destroying these fortifications
and filling up the moats was unavoidable, partly
because the stagnant standing water was detri-
mental to health and partly because the whole

* I was compelled to make a regular assault with battering-rams
manned by twenty or thirty men, and, in order to get rid of them, to
bury the pieces broken down which still stuck together. One does not
make such walls nowadays, neither common masons nor freemasons, nor
statesmen and nations, however anxious they are to build.

The Park in Moskau

1^5

«reappeared foreign to the character and purpose
of the building as well as to the whole region.

In order to obtain the earth required for filling
in, and at the same time be able to have the com-
mand of several pieces of water, it was necessary
to plan and excavate a new arm from the river
which runs through the park, which arm, in a
course of two or three miles, forms two lakes of
considerable area. The last and perhaps the great-
est difficulty was that five to six hundred acres
of land nearest to the castle consisted of barren
sand and clay, hard as iron, and this could only
be made fertile at great expense.

I therefore was confronted with more difficul-
ties at the very outset than many a man in a more #
favorable situation finds throughout his entire
work. Plate XI, for instance, gives the view from
the drawing-rooms of the castle as it is now, and
on the flap or folding sheet, as it was. On Plates
A and 5, two ground-plans of the park in these
different epochs, one can follow every detail of
my descriptions.'

The greater part of the preliminary work is
now complete; all that remains is the construc-
tion of roads, plantations, and small changes of
the surface by grading, and the erection of sev-
eral buildings, all of which will be easy in com-
parison with the really colossal earthwork done
at the beginning, although considerable time and

' I have purposely not drawn these plans in the picturesque manner
now so much in favor, since picturesque effects are only adequately
shown in pictures, while here it was a question of concise statement of
particulars.

ii6 Hints on Landscape Gardening

expense are still required. The great losses that
I suffered for years through war and other un-
toward circumstances have obliged me since then
to proceed slowly, yet I hope to see the main
part of the work completed within ten years,
with the exception of some of the buildings,
which I perhaps must leave for my descendants
to complete. Until then, therefore, I request all
who visit the park not to expect too much, and
to suspend, for the greater part, their judgment
on its present condition, and perhaps to rely more
upon my book than on my achievements; since
they might take for completed what is only pro-
visional, and much would seem a failure to the
expert which is only permitted to remain because
more important matters necessarily precede its
definite removal.*

It is hardly possible to lay out a park with suc-
cess in sections ; that is, to complete entirely one
part before beginning with the next. On the con-
trary, for the artistic interests of the whole, as
well as for economy of time and money, every-
thing must, so far as it is feasible, progress in
unison ; almost, one may say, as good strategy
will unite troops from various positions for the
decisive battle, so here the goal will be reached
by converging from all sides, not piecemeal.

* Thus, I was recently blamed by a very capable expert for planting
too many kinds of trees together and for laying out too few groves. He
was right, but had not considered that only the plants which are happi-
est in their growth are destined to remain; the others will be removed;
and that groves should be constructed where the growth has reached its
best period, and that until then the trees have been properly treated. ^

The Park in Moskau

117

When all is finished, the greater, nay, the
greatest, part of the real merit of the work will
remain unnoticed by the casual stranger, and the
more that this is true, the better it is. But this is
just the intelligent man’s endeavor and triumph
to make one believe that everything which he
sees must be exactly so and not otherwise, and
that from all time it has not been very different.
It would grieve me much if, for instance, at the
sight of the luxuriant meadows in my park, any
one should now trouble himself with the idea
that formerly here the thistle scarcely grew,
or, when he comfortably rolls by on the level
drive amidst abundant foliage he should be sud-
denly brought up by the reflection, that formerly
in this place a bottomless morass hardly afforded
an approach to grazing cattle. The perfection of
landscape art is reached only in the region where
it again appears to be untrammeled Nature, but
in her noblest manifestation. We find here a cu-
rious affinity between the art of the landscape
maker and that of the actor, since these are the
only two among all the arts that take Nature
herself for material and at the same time for the
representation of the theme, the actor endeavor-
ing to portray in his own person ideal man and
the landscape maker welding together the mate-
rial as he finds it in the rough and creating ideal
landscape. Unfortunately the similarity can be
carried still further, for the creations of both art-
ists are fleeting, although the landscape maker
still has some advantages over the actor.

ii8 Hints on Landscape Gardening

Even so one might compare a higher garden
art with music and, at least as fitly as architecture
has been called “frozen music,” to call garden
art “growing music.” It, too, has its symphonies,
adagios, and allegros, which stir the senses with
vague but powerful emotions. Further, as Nature
offers her features to the landscape gardener for
use and choice, so does she offer to music her fun-
damental tones; beautiful like the human voice,
the song of birds, the thunder of the tempest, the
roaring of the hurricane, the bodeful wailing of
branches — ugly sounds like howling, bellowing,
clattering, and squeaking. Yet the instruments
bring all these out and work, according to cir-
cumstances, ear-splitting sounds in the hands of
the incompetent, entrancing when arranged by
the artist in an orderly whole. The genial Na-
ture painter does the same. He studies the mani-
fold material given him by Nature and by his art
works the scattered parts into a beautiful whole,
whose melody flatters the senses, but unfolds its
highest powers and yields the greatest enjoyment
only when harmony has breathed true soul into
the work.

But I wander too far from my theme. I shall
be asked, perhaps, after this enumeration of all
my difficulties, why I undertook such a work at
all? The grounds for doing so are the follow-
ing:—

When I conceived the plan of such a large
undertaking, my first reflection was this, that it
does not become a man, who has succeeded to

The Park in Muskau

119

estates owned by his forefathers for centuries, to
turn his back on them and to seek his occupa-
tion or pleasure in life in a foreign country as long
as want or honor do not drive him to emigrate.

The property which I took over was very con-
siderable. A free lordship, endowed with sub-
ordinate sovereign rights and including the de-
pendent vassal property covering an area of ten
to eleven miles square, contains all that such
a situation demands, and consequently simplifies
the task for making further improvements. In
short, it might be regarded as an attractive place
to sojourn in itself. But, on the other hand, I
found this property carelessly left to its poverty
and lack of charm ; some luxury, it is true, but
nothing which showed the cult of the beautiful
was to be seen. Under these circumstances the
field for embellishment before me was a large one,
and I therefore held it to be my duty to be useful
here, all the more because I am of the opinion
that a large landowner, who directs his energies
continually to improve as well as to embellish his
property, to civilize the inhabitants given over to
his care, to increase their welfare and thereby
make the burdens of the land easier to them —
that man, I say, has at least earned as much grati-
tude from the State and is as much a true if vol-
untary and unpaid servant of the State as an official
who for a high salary sits for a few hours at a
desk, or a diplomat, for whom sometimes a post
almost amounting to a sinecure must be paid for
with many thousands, — a truth which many of

120 Hints on Landscape Gardening

our rulers still seem to ignore, not exactly to the
profit of their country.

Even if I felt free to take the view that I did,
it was still a question whether, all things con-
sidered, I could have expected, with so few diffi-
culties, such great advantages as I found here.

The drawbacks were : —

( 1 ) A generally sandy region covered for the
greater part with pine forests.

(2) Ä large area of poor soil in the territory
destined for the park.

(3) The necessity for tremendous preliminary
work before I could be in a position even to be-
gin the new grounds.

(4) The necessary acquisition of more than
two thousand acres of land that I did not own.

The advantages were as follows : —

( 1 ) A picturesque “ lie ” of the ground every-
where, and a great variety of mountain and valley
and the prospect of the Silesian and Oberlausitz
Mountains.

(2) The presence of a considerable stream
which flows through the land which is to form
the park and makes, for some distance from the
banks, a rich, though narrow, pasture ground.

(3) Many hundreds of the most beautiful old
trees, which were already scattered throughout
this territory.

(4) The ease with which — as soon as the
enclosure of the above-mentioned two thousand
acres of land, recently purchased, had been com-
pleted— I could extend operations as far as re-

The Park in Muskau

I 21

quired on my own soil and land, while in this
region the consequent loss of farm acreage was
not a very great consideration.

(5) The general cheapness of land labor and
cartage.

(6) All building material of my own produc-
tion, coming from brick kilns, iron foundries,
and glassworks, also wood of every kind in pro-
fusion, also abundance of field stones, large and
small, mostly of granite, rich marl quarries, etc.

(7) Lastly, the various means furnished by
such a large estate and by the disposition of so
many clerks and dependents whereby, on a large
scale, development is secured.

It will be seen that drawback ( i ) is nullified
by the advantages mentioned in advantage (i),
and it is almost a moot point whether such an
oasis, surrounded with woods, like an island by
the sea, cannot be, perhaps, the most favorable
spot for grounds of this kind.*

Moreover, forests of dark pine woods, melan-
choly when seen near at hand, at a distance
make a background and horizon against whose
dark masses the young green of deciduous foli-
age near by appears twice as gay, and colored
clouds of heaven afford a more brilliant con-
trast.

Drawback (2): The soil which was partly

* Passing as one must a whole tract of somewhat barren country
before reaching Muskau, when all expectations are abandoned, a luxurious
landscape, summoned as if by magic, strikes with twice the force, just
as (if the comparison does not appear trivial) a rich meal is best en-
joyed by a hungry stomach.

122 Hints on Landscape Gardening

bad might be improved by a pasture, and this
was done later on; and drawback (3) was solved
in greater part by advantage (4). But here came
a still more important consideration. The hard-
ships caused by war were nothing less than un-
bearable for the poor peasants ; the burdens and
state imposts had become exorbitant. Without
an exceptional opportunity to earn wages, I may
say, as acknowledged by all the people around,
a proportion of the inhabitants here would have
starved or been forced to emigration of the most
helpless kind.

Nearly two hundred people whom I employed
for many years almost daily, partly in my fac-
tories, which at that time were my only source
of income, partly in the grounds, owe their ex-
istence to this alone, and so it was a precious
boon to me that I could in such an easy man-
ner combine my duty with my pleasure. How
seldom is this the lot of poor mankind !

Nevertheless, I encountered much opposition;
and when I began to demolish the road and to
use the material to fill the moat, several persons
were even doubtful whether I was still in my
right mind, and many capitalists who had put
money into my property gave me notice at once
and withdrew it, only to lose it later in stock
speculations. Others asserted that it was impos-
sible, even for a man ten times as rich as I, to
realize such projects. But he who lets himself
be frightened by this word has but little experi-
ence; nineteen times out of twenty a firm will

The Park in Muskau

123

and patience make the so-called “impossible”
quite easily possible.

In my own case faith has literally removed
more than one mountain, and erected as many,
and when people saw that things were going,
they began to put more faith in my plans ; and
I thankfully acknowledge that I afterwards found
friendly support where I expected only resist-
ance. Even my Wendish peasants, constituting
the chief part of the population, and standing
on a level of culture not exactly of the highest
kind, have acquired some sense of the beautiful,
so that they have since decorated their villages
with trees. If they at times stole wood in my
park, yet they only cut the stakes to which trees
were tied, without doing the slightest injury to
the young trees themselves, a piece of delicate
consideration which in the case of Wends de-
serves ample recognition.

I mention this only to encourage others not
to give in too soon when “ impossibility ” is set
up against the realization of their dearest hopes.
Thus, I allowed every one, without consideration
of persons, access to my grounds, although many
landowners assured me that this was likewise
“ impossible,” since the rough, often drunken,
people would cut down all the young trees and
pluck all the flowers. It is true that some ex-
cesses occurred at first. They were sharply pun-
ished when the culprits could be identified, and
when not, the damage was quickly and patiently
repaired, and the gates remained as before, open

124 Hints on Landscape Gardening

to every one. Very soon people were impressed
by this steady perseverance ; when often hun-
dreds take their pleasure in the spacious park, I
must admit, for the credit of the public, that
any serious mischief is quite exceptional.

My whole conduct in this has even obtained
the general approval of my former subjects,’ in
spite of the hoards of pettifoggers and overseers
which have lately overrun our province, of
whom there are many who understand better
how to egg on peasants and landowners against
one another, emptying the pockets of both, than
to further harmony and culture, which is what
they forsooth proclaim as their aim. But since
then, the greatness of the evil itself, as well as
the true humanity of the higher magistrates,
have procured remedies, and in the highest man-
ner the graciousness of our Lord the King is
never to be sufficiently praised ; so I will hasten
from such repellent, and, God be thanked, partly
past, prose, and return to the innocent creations
of fancy.

I take this opportunity of returning once more
to the first chapter of this work, where I spoke
of the main idea which guided me in the lay-
ing-out of this park. I must, however, recount
in detail what were the preliminary steps to be
taken.

The region which was to serve me as a canvas

' They are now called “Hintersassen” (vassals or copy-holders),
since subjects are now only held by the sovereign, and in France not
even by him. Assuredly the times are marching with seven-league
boots !

The Park in Muskau

125

consisted, as I have already remarked, of boundless
pine and fir woods on all sides, in whose center, in
a hilly region, the little country town of Muskau
lies. The town is especially distinguished by
houses which are, without exception, massive,
by several pretty churches and towers, and by a
certain general neatness, and lies picturesquely
on the side of a mountain, up to whose summit
the terrace gardens of the burghers climb. Fruit
gardens and little summer houses make the aspect
very pleasant. On the wide eastern mountain
plateau over the town, and in its immediate
neighborhood, one sees hidden, in limes and
oaks, the village of Berg with one of the oldest
church ruins in the Lausitz. Farther south, at
the end of the little town, the slope becomes
steeper and describes a half-circle, where it is
covered by tall beeches, oaks, and isolated ever-
greens, and presents many romantic ravines. Here
is an alum mine with large buildings, refining
and other works. The ridge of the chain of hills
here turns south again, and reaches its highest
point at an old vineyard where there is an exten-
sive view over the river Neisse and the moun-
tains of Silesia, Gorlitz, and Bautzen. Here the
hills disappear by degrees into the thick forest.

If one follows the same chain of hills from
the other end of the town, toward the north,
one arrives at the steep wooded shore of the
Neisse; a road runs alongside which from here
discloses a view of a bridge and a village crowned
by a forest.

I2Ö Hints on Landscape Gardening

The reader may easily follow this description
on the plan (Plate XI), where the region is
shown as it used to be. He will further observe
how directly in front of the town the Neisse
meadows broaden out to the east, a completely
level valley through which the river runs for its
entire length. In this level place lie the old and
new castle, with their outbuildings, the theater,
stables, etc., close by the town, and a few hun-
dred paces farther a manor house as it used to
be and other buildings, now merely an old-
fashioned mill, the farmhouse, and some out-
buildings to which formerly a street of the town
near the castle used to lead.

The castle itself was surrounded on the other
side of the moats and fortifications by French
and kitchen gardens, later by a few of the novel
pseudo-English gardens, misunderstood in the
usual way that I have described as typical of the
Fatherland, but also by some remarkably fine
and wide linden avenues, which a foolish gar-
dener had partly decapitated, to protect a badly
placed orange house from the probable fall of
such large trees. The same absurdity was re-
peated farther on, where a pheasantry was placed
between meadows and deciduous forests. Several
giant firs have been either destroyed entirely, or
at least deprived of their crowns, under the pre-
text that an old, half-blind pheasant keeper could
not, it was presumed, shoot the birds of prey
which were wont to settle on the tops of the
trees. The remaining portion of the level space

The Park in Muskau

1 27

was occupied by desolate, bare fields, most of
which belonged to the townsmen. Yet the
shores of the stream were enlivened everywhere
by a quantity of the finest oaks and other tall
trees.

On the other side of the stream, continuing
toward the east, not far from its shores, there
rises another low ridge which forms the second
plateau of the park ; this at some distance is bor-
dered again by a chain of hills, on the summit
of which there stretches a third still larger pla-
teau that slopes, on the farther side very gradu-
ally, toward the forest. On the edge of these
vvoods lies the village of Braunsdorf with a farm-
house, to which a badly kept avenue of lindens
led, the line of which crossing the country, did
not improve the aspect. I had most of them re-
moved later on to give more character to some
of the bare spots on the heights.'

From the highest point of the last-named chain
of hills, a very fine and wide view may be en-
joyed. The foreground is formed by the Neisse
Valley, with the township, the rising terrace
gardens of which are picturesquely mingled with
the thatched huts of the village of Berg, which
here seem to hang almost immediately over the
town. Southward in the ravines the alum works

' As a remarkable example of the indifference of our forefathers to
enjoyment and decorum, I may instance that on these hills exactly op-
posite the castle the gallows stood for fifty years, the proximity of which,
every time the wind blew from the east, was evident in the most dis-
gusting manner. It cost me several thousands to get rid of this disagree-
able neighbor.

128 Hints on Landscape Gardening

and potters’ ovens are smoking day and night,
and their pillars of fire with the approach of
dusk light up the whole region every evening.
Beyond is an expanse of fields following the
course of the river, dotted with old oaks and
other deciduous trees, and this part of the pic-
ture is finally framed in by forests ; only the blue
tops of the Landskrone, Tafelfichte, and Schnee
Koppe can be discerned above the sea of dark-
green foliage. On the right, finally, on the other
side of the Neisse, spread wide meadows, shaded
by tall trees, over which rises the fir-covered
mountain of the glassworks of Wolfshayn, the es-
tate of the famous jurist and philosopher Gravell.
Turning around, one sees only the wavy lines of
the dense black forest, dwindling to the farthest
horizon, unbroken save here and there by the
gleaming tips of a few distant church spires.

On this spot now stands a ruined pavilion, and
in ancient times stood, according to the legend,
a castle or watch-tower, of which there are still
some remains of ruined walls and cellars, such as
may be found in the neighboring fir woods of
Keula. A rather remarkable occurrence during
the war threw a new light on this town, which,
however, like an ignis fatuus^ disappeared as
quickly as it came. One day a Russian staff offi-
cer appeared at the house of the Burgermaster
of the town, and springing from his foaming
Cossack steed, asked for some man who knew
the neighborhood well, to conduct him in a
search which was of great importance to him

The Park in Muskau

1 29

and for which he had but little time to spare.
Under the peculiar circumstances of that time,
his request could hardly be refused, but, being
rather uneasy about the unknown intentions of
the stranger, a reliable person was sought out and
directed to make an exact report of whatever
happened. This individual afterwards made the
following report: The strange officer began by
interrogating his guide at great length concern-
ing all the conditions of this place, and at length
disclosed, but with strict injunctions of the great-
est secrecy, that he was here with the intention
of discovering a considerable treasure, of whose
existence and probable situation he possessed the
fullest particulars. He had been born in Moscow
and his Slav forefathers had in former times pos-
sessed the town of Muskau, whose name for-
merly was pronounced in the same manner and
had the same Slav origin as Moscow.' Their cas-
tle used to stand in the forest, and a watch-tower
stood on the high hill already mentioned.

Upon this he showed the man a mouldy but
yet decipherable plan of the main features of the
region, and by pacing off in accordance with the
indications thereon, he really discovered the hith-
erto quite unknown remains of a cellar, and, about
forty paces farther on, those of a filled-up well,
where they began at once to dig, but could dis-
cover nothing but a few small coins which were

* It is rather striking that the attribution of a Slav origin is fairly cor-
roborated by an old manuscript chronicle of the town, in which it is
written as Moska. On the land charts it is also named in the same way.

130 Hints on Landscape Gardening

covered with green mould, and whose inscrip-
tion had been quite obliterated. As after contin-
uous toil nothing further came to light, the strange
treasure-seeker sent his assistant back, with the
announcement that on the morrow he would
bring more men with him. But the following
day he did not turn up, and when on the third
day the guide once more found himself alone on
the spot, he discovered that the earth had been
rummaged deeper still so that there was no doubt
that a fresh search had been made. The results
of it, as well as the mysterious officer, remained
unknown, and all the digging which some years
later I undertook from curiosity, when I learned
the events on my return from the campaign, also
remained fruitless.

These data are not entirely unconnected with
the following development of my plans.

After I had acquainted myself with the local-
ity I have depicted, and the possibility of carry-
ing out my plans, I decided to lay out as a park,
with the exception of the gardens already exist-
ing, the whole river domain with its bordering
plateaus and hill chains, pheasantry, field, manor,
mill, alum works, etc., from the last ravines of
the hill descending to the south to the villages
of Kobeln and Braunsdorf on the north (alto-
gether nearly four thousand acres of land), and
by taking in the slope behind the town, and a
portion of the village of Berg situated thereon,
to surround the town itself in such a way that it
would become merely a part of the park.

The Park in Muskau

131

As it is a town which was formerly subject to
me and is still dependent upon me, its inclusion
in the project had an historical significance ; for
the main idea which formed the foundation of
the whole conception was nothing less than to
present a sensible picture of the life of our fam-
ily, or of the aristocracy of our country, in such
a way that the idea should, as it were, become
of itself apparent to the beholder. For this pur-
pose it was only necessary to utilize what was
already there, to elevate and enrich in the same
spirit, but not to violate its locality and history.
Many ultra-liberals will perhaps smile at such a
thought, but every form of human development
is worthy of honor, and just because that of which
I speak is perhaps nearing its end, it assumes a
universal, poetic, and romantic interest, which
so far cannot be extracted from factories, ma-
chines, or even constitutions, suum cuique. Yours
is now money and power — leave to the poor,
worn-out nobility its poetry, the sole thing which
is left to it. Honor the weak old age, ye Spar-
tans !

I selected, therefore, as the central point, the
mountain dominating the region, as the ruins of
walls and the old legends sufficiently indicated
that it had once been the site of a feudal castle,
and it was decided to erect a building in the
simple style which was predominant in the Mid-
dle Ages for buildings of this kind, much like
some of the oldest castles on the Rhine in a
fairly good state of preservation. It was essential

132 Hints on Landscape Gardening

that art should give this castle the appearance of
real antiquity, but it was to be no useless ruin,
such as when newly constructed too much re-
sembles a mere plaything and must miss a decep-
tive effect because too much is left to the imagi-
nation. It should be merely an old castle, which,
in course of time, served other purposes; in short,
a partially reconstructed, often repaired, and con-
tinually used complete structure, of which there
are many such examples in our province. By
virtue of its location, it could therefore be very
appropriately used as the main building for farm
purposes and stables, since from the valley it ap-
pears to stand on steep heights on the border of
the forest, but on the other side its proximity to
the widest plateau makes it accessible from the
more level ground. The so-called inner “Burg,"
with the solitary high watch-tower, from which
in these days, of course, no misshaped dwarf is
on the lookout for strange foes, was to serve as
a dwelling for the master and the tower as a fire-
watch, which, with the frequent forest fires of our
region, is only too necessary. Besides, if it were
thought more in keeping and more romantic, a
modern Seni' might employ himself with as-
trology in undisturbed solitude, or an alchemist,
for instance (as they are by no means extinct),
nay, even the baying of hounds, which was so
obligatory in all knightly tales, would not be
lacking, as the trainer for the hounds was lodged
there.

* The name of the astrologer in Schiller’s Wallenstein.

Photographs by Thomas W. Sears
Two Views of the Castle and Moat at Muskau

The Park in Muskau

133

But, joking apart, there is no lack of real tra-
dition among the people to give fiction an his-
torical basis. Besides the incidents I have related,
the old chronicle of the town records the follow-
ing, which I translate into modern German with
only a few remarks of my own : —

Muskau or Mosca, otherwise called Muzakow, that
is “ Town of men,” was in the time of the Sorbs a re-
nowned holy place, where four of their temples stood
in oak groves. Here the holy image of old times, the
god of gods Swantewit, “the holy spirit, the holy fire,”
was worshiped. The oracles of the horse dedicated to
him were promulgated by the priests, and the places
of sacrifice — one quite close to the baths — are easily
distinguishable. A large cemetery on the other side of
the town, full of urns which are still sometimes ex-
humed, indicates a place either largely populated, or at
least inhabited from time immemorial. At the conver-
sion of the Sorbs by Louis the Pious and to the time
of Hildewardt III, Bishop of Meissen, in 1060, the
worshipers of the old gods took refuge in these formerly
almost impenetrable forests, and their religious rites
were conducted for several centuries there with stealth
and seclusion. The statue of the god Zeutiber was said
to be still preserved here even at a much later date,
although in a damaged condition.'

The first “Graf” at Muskau was Theorious, whose
daughter Juliane was given as wife to Wittekind’s son
of the same name. The Graf was said to be in great
demand, and the renown of his name has descended to
our times.

* Compare the funeral monuments in the Troad and on the Euro-
pean peninsula of the whole Hellespont as far as Ganochoro and Hera-
clea, where the last examples are to be found. So in the Neisse Valley
here, and especially near Buchwalde and Werdeck, there are high green
hills covered with primeval oaks, called “ Kraalsroo,” or Kings’ Graves,
by the Sorbs and Wends to this day.

134 Hints on Landscape Gardening

The Hungarians, after their great battle, were for
the first time entirely dispersed on their retreat in this
valley, which was then all forest, by the brave hero,
Graf Siegfried von Ringelhain, with the help of Graf
Bruno von Askanien/

Markgraf Johann, son of Siegfried, built with his
portion of the booty the strong and well-protected
castle at Muskau as a land or frontier fortress, which
even the Emperors Henry III and IV, in 1109, be-
sieged in vain; afterwards the Markgraves had ceded
it to Herzog Vladislaus of Poland, from whom it was
acquired by Herzog Boleslaus of Bohemia. It was here
that Vladislaus lived three years of love and bliss with
the Herzog of Bohemia’s daughter Michildam, after
having eloped with the beautiful maid from the Hrad-
schin, for whom her father had other intentions and
indeed had refused to give her to him as his bride.
There Boleslaus laid siege, beleaguered and stormed
the castle of Muskau, and took it. But the father’s
anger had to yield to pity and mercy when he saw at
his feet his daughter a prisoner with her lovely little
boy. He forthwith forgave her, and Vladislaus, this
young prince, was afterward Herzog in Bohemia, and
showed, as Abraham Horsmann tells in his chronicle,
much affection for his birthplace of Muskau. The
town, which since that time had much grown, was laid
waste by the Tartars in the fearful battle of 1241, so
important in its results. At that time also the old castle
was destroyed, of whose mighty towers no trace is left,
and of their site very little. The town was rebuilt on
its old site, but the new castle was now placed close up
to it. Knightly jousts and so-called “Torniamina” of
nobles and other gatherings of important people often-

‘ The great Burgundy Chronicle, Dr. Hegemuller’s book of heraldry,
printed in Munich, and Dr. Sekden’s coat of arms, give certain things
of this matter, in folio 133. An official letter for Muskau from the Em-
peror Henry I.

The Park in Muskau

135

times took place here. Before the Reformation Muskau
had a provost. This region from the time of the battle
with the Tartars until the last war of liberty continu-
ally experienced the horrors brought on by devasta-
tion.

First the Hussites pillaged it terribly. In the Thirty
Years’ War Tiefenbach burned all the villages round
Muskau. The Croats plundered the town and castle.
Wallenstein lay in 1633 several days in this region with
the Imperial army. Soon after the forest was set on
fire; it burned for six weeks, and by neglect of the
Swedes the new castle was also burned down ; it was
afterwards rebuilt, improved, and enlarged. The town
also was several times on fire, and, especially in the
year 1766, was totally laid in ashes, but, thanks to this
disaster, has a finer and more tasteful exterior than any
other country town of the same size.

So much for the documentary history of the
town, of which, one may say, without improba-
bility, that on this same spot Vladislaus’s beauti-
ful daughter lived sweetly fearful days in love
and terror. But as the poets often begin their
labor at the end of their works and finish the
beginning at the last, I have postponed the build-
ing of this town until the last.

In continuation of the chain of hills crowned
with forest and at a short distance from the town,
the cemetery chapel of the family will be found
situated, approached by a bridge with a sharp
curve. This chapel or church, the building of
which would have been the first duty of our pious
forefathers, is therefore probably copied from a
like ancient source and, with due regard to its
purpose, built in Byzantine, or, better still, in

136 Hints on Landscape Gardening

Roman, style. Farther on may be seen, at about
the same distance on the same declivity, a roughly
walled prominence on which an old lime tree has
grown, where, in a niche of this wall, a Holy
Virgin is placed after the old Catholic custom,'
and a resting-place offered, and the prospect of
the other world is allegorically represented by
one of the finest views on earth looking toward
the evanescent hills melting in pale blue distance.

On the plateau behind these various town build-
ings and as though belonging to them, the race-
course is situated, to which I shall return later.

This whole long chain of hills, as I have
already said, presents analogous conditions and
constitutes the only view toward the west from
the old as well as the new and now inhabited
castle.

After the little town had been built on the
river, under the protection of the feudal owners,
the times, as they became more peaceable and
easy, permitted the stern lords on the heights to
leave the comfortless castle and settle in more
companionable surroundings ; at least, the so-
called old castle was as a fact built in the fourteenth
century in the valley, and now serves as a court-
house for the magistrates. Its characteristics have
been carefully preserved, only its gables and old
armor have been restored and the statue of the
ancestor of our family, famous in the “Nibel-

‘ This figiire of the Virgin is a very remarkable statue, found not
long ago, carved in petrified wood. It is attributed to the thirteenth or
fourteenth century.

The Park in Muskau 137

ungenlied,” Rudigen von Bechlarn, has been
addedd

As the open space before this building serves
as 2. point de vue for a street of the town and the
chief way to the park is at this entrance, the
equestrian statue of the old Magyar will be found
here, the best site for it.

At a later epoch my ancestors built, only a hun-
dred paces from the first castle, another one with
a much more agreeable exterior, connected with
the first by fortifications and moats suitable to
their enlarged property and more exalted rank
(they had just been elevated to the rank of
“Reichsgrafen”). An Italian architect built it
as well as a so-called “garden palace” at the
same distance on the other side, which was used
later on as a theater, and made half as large again
but deformed in the most tasteless manner in the
process.

One can see from the plan how I converted

' It is true, I may say in passing, that in some genealogical works
doubt has been thrown on this genealogy of our family, but although it
has not been proved historically correct, it has been made highly prob-
able by some attested copies from ancient original documents, which
latter were unfortunately lost in a great fire at Schedlau in the beginning
of the sixteenth century, as well as by the identity of the name (as our
family name was written “Pechlarn ” as late as the fifteenth century),
and lastly, by the similarity of the arms, as is proved by the monument
of Pellegrin, Bishop of Passau, a descendant of Budigerin the ninth cen-
tury, where the separate limbs of an eagle in four fields (quarterings)
are to be seen as in our arms of the present day. The formerly direct
branch of my family, the Grafen Pückler Limpurg auf Farrenbach, are
said to possess interesting information on the subject, which I hereby
invite them to disclose; for who can blame us for setting at a high value
the imperishable heroic stories of Germany, even if we only have prob-
ability on our side ?

138 Hints on Landscape Gardening

the old moats into a lake and stream by a canal
leading from the river Neisse, the latter sur-
rounding three sides of the new castle and divid-
ing it from the older quarter and from the theater.
According to my plans, to which my talented
friend Schinkel has certainly given the most de-
lightful form, the old castle in future will be con-
nected with the new by a high arched bridge, the
theater on the other side by a gallery, crossing
the water in a higher arch, the whole improve-
ment making a worthier residence in a further
extension of more than five hundred paces.
When we turn back for a moment to contem-
plate past centuries, we retrace the growing
development of industry and culture, which no
longer permitted the nobleman to be now a
pleasure-seeker and then, when the chance came,
a robber, but summoned him as well to engage
himself in industrial life. In consequence there
arose on the river buildings devoted to economic
purposes, — mills, breweries, distilleries, etc., —
which still show the old-fashioned, irregular style
with gables, projecting stories, and small win-
dows. Later the ground itself was explored, and
the alum works founded, which showed in the
architecture a less old-fashioned, more industrial
character. A vineyard closes the category of these
older ventures, whose product, however, is not to
be recommended. It seems either that our an-
cestors were satisfied with their poor wine, or that
the climate was warmer than at the present time,
for who would think at this date that the neigh-

The Park in Muskau

139

borhood of Berlin, which in regard to beverages
can only boast of Weiss beer, formerly was a wine
country as is proved by the Berlin calendar?

In recent times, finally, when all the different
interests of the people have been more and more
amalgamated by the spread of education, — this
period marks the beginning of my modest work,
— a feeling for art and beauty at last began to
awaken in these regions, formerly overlooked
in the general march of culture. The leading
thought was to reflect the past in one congruous
picture, whereby everything which was still in
existence should be again emphasized, improved
as far as its purposes allowed, and embellished
and combined anew in a well-arranged whole. A
new source of income was found in the long
known, but never exploited, mineral waters which
rise near the mines, as well as the strong sulphur
springs in most productive meadows in neighbor-
ing valleys, which had been doubtless running
for centuries past and wasted in the dust of de-
cayed forests. By means of a hydropathic estab-
lishment, well furnished with all requisites, it was
sought to benefit also the suffering of humanity.

Other undertakings were started, some with-
in the precincts of the castle, some elsewhere ;
namely, a wax bleachery, a fisherman’s cottage,
and some colonies of cottages in the vicinity of
the village of Kobeln, near the alum works, and on
the Braunsdorf plain, each grouped as a whole and
arranged throughout as free dwellings for garden
hands, miners, and the needy ; further, an observ-

140 Hints on Landscape Gardening

atory and extensive cottage ornee^ called “ the Eng-
lish House,” which serves as a Sunday recreation
ground for the town and suburbs. As a coping-
stone to the whole, as a monument of a work
which contended with such innumerable difficul-
ties, I have projected the erection of a temple on
an isolated hill in the center of a park and on the
shore of a stream, dedicated to “ Perseverance,”
for further mention of which I refer the reader
to the “First Carriage Drive.”

This, then, was in the main the task which I
had set myself. How I carried it out, in so far as
it is carried out and in so far as this book has ex-
plained the remainder, I must leave to the judg-
ment of experts; at least the attempt has been
harmless, well intentioned, and not without some
artistic endeavor.

The park of Muskau may now be described
by districts, as follows, which at the same time
enumerate the various epochs with some ac-
curacy.

I. The “ Burg” domain on the farther shore of

the Neisse to which belong: —

A. The “Burg” itself with its surroundings.

B. The cemetery chapel.

C. The race-course.

D. The stud.

E. The manor house with the sheep farm.

II. The town and its precincts.

III. The castle domain : —

A. The old castle, mill, farmhouses, etc.

B. The new castle with its “pleasure-ground.”

C. The orangeries and gardens.

The Park in Muskau

141

D. The inn.

E. 'The pheasantry.

F. The fisherman’s hut with its surroundings.

G. The temple.

IV. The vineyard.

V. The mine with its colonies.

VI. The baths.

VII. The observatory.

VIII. The village, to which belong; —

A. The English house.

B. The Gobelin colony.

In order to proceed to the more detailed de-
scription of these districts, the most practical
way will be to follow the same course as would
be taken by a stranger in his visits, and therefore
I beg the reader to consult the plan in Plate B.

I must first remark, however, that besides the
classification which I have just completed and
which I would call the “ aesthetic ” part, another
more general classification would be advisable,
for the sake of locality, convenience, and review
of the whole. Accordingly the whole would fall
under three heads only, in which each would be
dealt with as it is limited by situation ; namely,
the castle park, the park of the baths, and the
outer park. Each of these presents space and
room enough for a walk. The first is bounded
partly by a high wood fence, which is nowhere
visible, with broad plantations, partly by the
Neisse ; the second is also bounded partly by a
similar fence toward the town, and partly by deep
ditches and broad blackthorn thickets. The third
is bounded throughout by dikes with acacia

142 Hints on Landscape Gardening

thorn and gleditschia thickets, twelve feet broad,
totally impenetrable to man or beast, and con-
tented with the poorest soil. The hares, which
are very plentiful in our part of the world, dam-
age them considerably during hard winters, but
as they must be partly cut down every three years
to renew their density, the damage is seldom of
great proportions.

I will assume that one has started from the
castle and is taking a walk to the flower gardens
and a part of the pleasure-ground,” to which
leads no drive. Following the arrow that starts
from the wide steps of the court of the castle
(a, on the ground-plan C and B)' is an arrange-
ment for orangery and flowers with light arcades,
and above it, rising from large vases, drooping
passion flowers. Between the arches are hanging
bars, on which many-colored parrots swing, with-
out being able to incommode one by their too
great proximity. The orangery makes a shady
and fragrant walk on the terrace, extends around
the court, and is surrounded with flower stands
in which niches are placed, serving as an occa-
sional salon and affording views of the park.
The terraces are connected with the drawing-
rooms by glass doors.

On the opposite side of these rooms, toward
the south, a conservatory is thrown out, running
along the wing of the castle, the windows of

* I have had copied, for the better comprehension of the reader, a
part of the gardens on a larger scale, as far as the footpaths go, and
marked them with the same letters. (See Plate C.)

The Park in Muskau

143

which are taken out in summer, which at all
times of the year makes a flower walk. The
rooms have a lookout on this promenade
through gilded lattices, immediately under the
windows, and two steps at the sides give access
to it.

The first flower garden starts in front of this
conservatory and is bounded by the lake Lucie,
with the hills beyond.

It surrounds the whole square of the castle
and has a communication under the castle terrace
by a tunnel, walled with golden-colored sulphur
pyrites and blue slags.

In the laying-out of these gardens I have al-
lowed my fancy free play and have combined
regularity with irregularity fearlessly, but I hope,
nevertheless, not to have disturbed the harmony
of the whole. On the ground-plan, no doubt,
there may be a singular appearance in the fan-
shape ; the “ H ” set in a star ; the square shaped
like the breastplate of the Jewish high priest;
the cornucopia; the colossal flower made up of
various plants ; an “ S ” of roses and forget-me-
nots ; the peacocks’ feathers, etc. As a matter of
fact, the effect is rather rich and original, and
not more heterogeneous than the bazaar effect
is usually in the room of an elegant lady. The
sketch in Plate XII gives a part of the appear-
ance presented by these features seen from the
balcony of the tower. Two busts can be seen
there in front of a flower stand. They are those
of two women, who of all those I have met

144 Hints on Landscape Gardening

on my life’s journey seemed to me the most
lovely.*

The slightly higher ground under three old
limes (c), surrounded by the greatest wealth of
flowers, is also the central point of the flower
gardens, whence a view opens on the lake, the
adjoining “pleasure-ground,” and the terrace gar-
dens of the town opposite, with the village of
Berg above. The water laps the foot of the steep
stone wall, on which there is room for a fairly
large company. In the evening this Platz is
lighted by bright-colored lanterns.

Farther on is the rosary, a rosette made up of
monthly roses and box and surrounded by pome-
granate trees. The rosary is joined to the con-
servatory just mentioned, in which a roomy niche
surrounded by flower stands can be used as an-
other place for company. Here the shrubbery
which surrounds it on all sides allows a view of
the water only, under the shelter of large-leaved
planes. (See Plate XIII.) On one side of this
feature lies the tulip room in the shade of which
are planted carnations. A stone step leads from
here down to the water to some light gondolas,
in which the votaries of rowing, the favorite
pastime in these days, may disport themselves,
without fear of storm and shipwreck.

Continuing on our path we come to an open
platform at the tower. A bower of jessamine and

' As recognition of beauty is not offensive, and rank and wealth are
as nothing in its realm, I will name them for the enlightenment of the
curious: the one is the Gräfin Alopaus; the other the Gräfin Rossi.

The Park in Muskau

H5

roses leans against the tower under the upper bal-
cony. From this one has a view of the lake in a
new direction and in its greatest length, where
two bridges and a waterfall serve as an excellent
point de vue. From this point the walk continues
through the shrubbery for a time, after which
one comes to an ornamental plot with the letter
“ S,” an aviary, farther a flower parterre, imitat-
ing a bundle of colossal peacocks’ feathers, then
a flower stand with hothouse plants, till the tun-
nel mentioned above [d') is reached. A fountain
here makes a spot which is alw'ays cool and re-
freshing in hot summer days, peaceful and soli-
tary, where one may, as the saying goes, give
audience to one’s thoughts, or, in more prosaic
phrase, enjoy a siesta, to which a soft couch of
moss and never broken twilight invite one.

I may be allowed to make a digression here
and take the opportunity to lay down some rules
for flower plantations and the like.

I have unfortunately to contend with an un-
favorable climate in the Neisse Valley, and can
only rely on half-hardy shrubs with the help of
careful covering to prevent freezing, such as some
of the cytisus, calicanthus, cercis, amygdalus,
hibiscus, hydrangea, rhododendron, comptonia,
etc., while the still more delicate ones, like liq-
uidamber, magnolia, azalea, etc., and even the
Prunus lusitanica^ so hardy in England, Pyrus
japonicUy arbutus, viburnum, ilex varieties and
some of the andromedas, etc., must be protected
every winter in portable houses. I therefore give

146 Hints on Landscape Gardening

the hardier kinds, although they are more com-
mon, the preference, since one should refrain as
far as possible from trying to force Nature too
much or too often ; for even a quite common
red thorn, for instance, if it is in vigorous bloom,
or a bush honeysuckle, etc., has a better appear-
ance than a suffering exotic growth, which in a
more suitable climate might possibly have un-
folded in its fullest splendor. In general the
chief decoration is made by potted plants, which
are so arranged in permanent stands that they do
not injure the lawn nor let the pots and tubs
show in an unsightly manner. For instance, the
oleanders surrounding a semicircular bank were
placed in long semicircular boxes and lowered
into a trench of masonry work built behind
the bank, and as the branches reach down to the
ground they appear to be growing out of it.
Single pomegranate and other trees are enclosed
in pretty stands made to fit them exactly, and
surrounded with flower pots in such a way that
the tub containing the tree is not to be seen and
only its crown rises from the midst. Should
one desire, however, that an isolated stem remain
visible, then the tub as well may be inserted in
a walled funnel and the top covered with pots
with low flowers set in green moss. If these
half-hardy plants have to be removed in late
autumn, then they must be replaced by hardier
kinds, or by baskets with potted flowers which
are not afraid of a little frost, like asters, etc.
The walled openings in the earth must be wide

The Park in Muskau

147

enough to allow plenty of air to reach the tubs,
and the tubs too must be set only halfway in
the earth.

I have already said that on the whole masses
of congenial colors are to be preferred to the
mixture of many kinds. But so far as concerns
the sequence of the flowers, not to be too dis-
cursive, I will only give the example of the way
I have treated the specimens I have mentioned,
the fan (f), the star with the “H” {f)i the
quadruple square (g), in the blue flower garden,
and the cornucopia [h).

The fan (e) comes first into bloom with yel-
low crocus. Then it is planted with gillyflower
so that they make rings of various colors all over
it, with a dark point in the middle, from which
the shadings are graduated to the circumfer-
ence.

The same device is lastly devoted to Aster
chinensis, which blossoms right into autumn,
when our stay in the country is at an end as a
rule. Generally only lovers of hunting are left
behind, who demand no flowers ; only the hares.
The two round baskets next the fan are planted
first with dark double golden wallflowers and
later with Lobelia cardinalis.

The star opposite the fan begins with double
tulips ; after these come bright red pelagoniums
planted from pots, which also last till autumn.
Four baskets surround this device also, which
begins with bright-colored mixed single tulips,
but for second flowering have two with Eli-

148 Hints on Landscape Gardening

chrysum bracteatum surrounded by Verbenia auble-
tia, and two with Ueliotropium peruvianum. The
square g (in the blue flower garden) begins with
double hyacinths, which are arranged in the
four compartments shaded in four colors and
planted as close as possible. Then follow, but
in a different arrangement, Gomphrena globosa in
three colors; h, the cornucopia has a yellow
tip, which is made up throughout the year with
flowers of Mimulus guttatus, which must be put
in at various times in order to last till late au-
tumn. Its other sections are variegated in color
by Silene bipartita ^ Viola grandißora, and Lobelia
ericoides. But the mouth where the cornucopia
pours out a great mass of flowers is filled through-
out the summer with all sorts of bright flowers
in pots embedded in moss and some pumpkins
placed among them, to make the contours of the
outpour as indistinguishable as possible.

All figures of this complicated kind are as a
rule bordered with boxwood outlining their
form more clearly and firmly, which flower bor-
ders can never do with such precision. But
with single beds of regular, simple shape, such
as circles, ovals, squares, unless wicker edging is
preferred, I make use of any of the low flowers
which serve the purpose of bordering. Such a
border, however, must never be used around
shrubs irregular in contour, which would thus
give a stiff appearance.

For climbing plants various trellises are made
of strong wire, which in themselves are quite

The Park in Muskau

149

pretty things, and which allow the plants to
cling freely on all sides. In England one can find
them ready-made and of neat workmanship,
whether as gates, arches, overhead trellis, broken
pillars, or little obelisks; here, however, they
must be made by capable smiths from drawings.

Among other effects a very pretty one is
Glycine sinensis trained on an overhead shelter
like an umbrella, when its thick blue clusters
of flowers show through the wire interstices.
(See Plate XI V, i ; and the arch 2, for an orna-
mental entrance planted with Cobea scandens;
and 3, the gilt aureole glory {Vergoldeten Glorie')^
on which various kinds of clematis are climbing;
or 4, the blue basket with gilt tips crowned with
red Bignonia radicans; 5 is a flower basket whose
edge is made of leaves made of tiles.) The
leaves are furnished underneath with long spikes
which fix them in the earth, and so can with
little trouble be put in and taken out one by
one. It is a cheap, durable, and at the same time
very ornate, border.

We now return, with the reader’s permission
(whose patience I hope I have not exhausted),
to our promenade, and we ascend the steps (z)
which lead to the great castle landing where we
must linger awhile. One can see on the plan
that a flight of steps forty feet wide starts from
the landing, and leads by fifteen steps of granite
to the lawn of the bowling green before the
castle. In front of the steps are four flower beds,
and a little farther on a resting-place at a colos-

150 Hints on Landscape Gardening

sal Ariadne lying on her pedestal, surrounded by
rose trees supported by gilt stakes. Beyond this
ornamental foreground may be seen the moun-
tains in the distance, with the “Burg” pre-
cincts. The river cannot be seen from this spot,
as it is hidden by the dams, nor was a water
view desirable here, since it may be had on three
other sides of the castle. The middle distance
thus unfolds merely a wide green flat extending
from the castle to the iron fence which divides
the “ pleasure-ground ” from the park. This
fence is adorned with blooming shrubs and some
masses of flowers. After this only meadows
grazed by sheep arid cows are to be seen, and
also groups of tall trees, under whose foliage the
mountains and buildings crowning them seem
to retreat to a greater distance than is really the
case. The second middle distance is formed by
the row of hills on the other side of the river,
with its plateau and large clumps of bushes scat-
tered over them. This view, which was formerly
entirely hidden by an avenue of tall limes that
I opened out, is already familiar to the reader
from Plate II. The cutting of the avenue was
undertaken by me with such precaution that I
invited the younger Repton from England merely
for the purpose of consulting him on this im-
portant point. Mr. Aday Repton is, however,
more of an architect than a landscape artist, and
apart from the fact that he confirmed me in my
plan by his authority, I must confess that (partly
on the grounds I have given on page 16) he

The Park in Moskau

151

could be of little service. But I must accord
him all praise for the readiness, I may say the
heartiness, with which he, contrary to English
habits, bestrode my hobby-horse with me. A
very well-recommended English gardener, whom
I had also written for, showed himself very serv-
iceable in technical matters, but in matters of
taste too much a slave of custom, as soon as one
left him, if only for a moment, to his own de-
vices. Among other things I could not make him
understand that groups need not always be planted
more or less en quinquonce . He maintained that
in England this shape is considered the best
(wherein no doubt he was right), and there he
stuck. Besides this, the fact that they lack ade-
quate knowledge of our language always remains
with such people a great hindrance ; therefore, I
soon found myself obliged to send him back,
which I mention in order to keep others from
making the same mistake.

Much better service was rendered me by the
inexhaustible pains and capable adaptation of
my plans by my German head gardener Rehder,
a member of the Prussian Society of Gardeners.
Certainly not a little was contributed by him to
the conquest of many difficulties, among which
the unfavorable climate of North Germany stands
first, which, especially in our cold region, makes
the gardener’s a truly difficult calling. I make
this remark because many gardeners spoil the
best instructions because of their self-conceit, so
typical of the German middle classes. The bet-

152 Hints on Landscape Gardening

ter they have been grounded in their specialty,
and naturally, therefore, the more competent they
are technically than their masters, the more are
they inclined to assume as well their superiority
in esthetic questions, and thus spoil everything
by thinking to do everything better, instead of
energetically supporting and furthering the suc-
cess of the artistic ideas of others by means of
their technical science. An adaptable, patient,
and at the same time clever, practical man is not
at all so easy to find as one may think, and it
would be a good thing if particular stress were
laid on these requirements of education in our
new schools for gardeners. Young men who
from the beginning think too much of them-
selves and want to be too important are of no
use; and I would say, half in jest and half in
earnest, a gardener to my taste must have more
of the character of the good Wagner in him
than of the restless Faust, and very rarely kick
against the things of this world, least of all
against patience, and especially obedience.

The flight of steps, where we last paused, is
also built after Schinkel’s drawing. From both
sides of the landing-stage extends a series of steps
ten feet wide alongside of the building, where
orange trees are set, and between these on each
step are iron pillars surmounted with lanterns.
Festoons connect these pillars and at the same
time give the trees the very necessary support
which their exposed situation requires. On fes-
tive occasions, moreover, they serve for stringing

Plate XV. View of the Castle from the Bowling Green, showing Steps with Orange Trees and (to the left)

the Old Castle

The Park in Muskau

153

lamps upon, which make a very charming effect
in the foliage of the orange trees. Iron chains
separate the trees from the road. Plate XV gives
the aspect of the flight and the castle view from
the bowling green.

Descending the flight of steps from the left,
we now come into a shrubbery, where an orna-
mented grate leads to the second flower garden,
of quite a different character. To distinguish it
from the other it is called the “ blue garden,”
because it is enclosed with steel-blue halberds
and chains, and all edgings, bridges, benches,
etc. (made of iron throughout), are painted sky-
blue and white.

The newly dug arm of the Neisse flows
through the middle of these grounds, which are
terminated on one side by thick woods, on the
other bv a tall avenue of limes, between whose
branches only a few narrow views have been
arranged, in order not to encroach on the char-
acter of secrecy and seclusion, which is my chief
aim here. The former outlook on the “Bur^”
precincts is altogether hidden here, but one fol-
lows the continuation of the same chain of hills
covered with a wide wood, from which the
salient points are a few primeval oaks on the
highest hilltops.

Not far from the entrance on an eminence
stands a bench surrounded with flowers [k) with
a view between the linden branches of the hill,
in the middle of the landscape, on which the
temple of Perseverance is to stand. Its summit

154 Hints on Landscape Gardening

is provisionally crowned only by a terrace and
pavilion. At the side under the bench mentioned
is a very thick and shady grove of limes near the
water (/), and here a small boat is stationed for
quicker communication with the avenue oppo-
site. A gleaming colored lantern of peculiar
construction, which forms the center of a broken
iron hoop, marks this point at night at a long
distance off.

Behind the grove, through a wire arch into
the third garden, called the “ Herrengarten,”
the path leads as far as the river, which serves
as its boundary on this side. Soon afterwards we
come to an airy resting-place like a kind of
temple whose thin iron pillars serve as sup-
ports for various kinds of clematis. The view be-
tween them opens to the west and north. In the
first direction one can see the town and one of
the farms on the height; in the other, one fol-
lows the bend of the river in the valley, and
various parts of the forest on its shores, not
hitherto visible. (See Table XVI.) At the side
stands another bench among flowers on the
lawn, made of tree-trunks turned upside down
so that the roots form a crown. These inter-
woven roots are richly embellished with clema-
tis, mosses, and flowers in pots, and present an
original appearance, far removed from the com-
monplace. The last resting-place is under four
oaks near a waterfall (n) where the river plunges
over a smooth wall of broad stones in full tor-
rent, natural-looking and unbroken by any ob-

The Park in Muskau

155

Stacie. From here one returns to the castle in a
diagonal direction to the exit through masses of
shrubbery and flower beds, mingled with various
decorations over the grassy carpet. A visit to
the stables, the race-course, and the theater (0),
which one passes on one’s return, may termi-
nate the walk for those who are interested in such
things.

So as not to become tedious, I must pass over
the numerous promenades in the closed “ pleas-
ure-ground,” as well as in the open park; so I
offer the obliging reader a seat in the garden
wagon (called “Ligne,” on which several per-
sons can be seated and look around on all sides)
for the

FIRST CARRIAGE DRIVE

As it begins from the castle, one cannot any
longer follow the historic arrangement which I
gave the park previously, but must choose the
second, which allows more freedom, and as the
first view has left a good idea of the estate as a
whole, one may now be free to enjoy a pleasant
change. But if one would like to proceed quite
systematically, he could also look over the park
more especially along the footpaths according to
the divisions suggested by the fundamental idea ;
the park also may be visited, which carries out
the same main idea.

So, beginning from the castle, we will first visit
(following the arrow) the orange houses [p on
the ground-plan B ; for the whole btablissement

156 Hints on Landscape Gardening

see the ground-plan D). From the salon in the
middle of the first orangery (i) looking beyond
a large bed of rhododendrons, we have a view
of an avenue of limes a hundred years old, about
a thousand paces long, and in winter, on both
sides of the salon, there are also two avenues of
orange trees to be seen, which will be termi-
nated by palm houses. From here one passes (2),
through a flower house in the form of a gallery,
into the hothouses. From this gallery we see on
the left the winter garden (3), and on the right
a landscape, not without charm, even in winter,
of which the features are the lake Lucie, the
town, and the mountains rising beyond. Next
we enter the hothouses (4), in front of which is
the flower nursery surrounded by trellis walls {5),
at the side the large kitchen garden (6), then
the hotbeds (7), the garden courtyard, the gar-
den inspector’s house (8), and the second orange
house (9), as well as the concealed places (10
and ii), where everything is kept, which, al-
though useful and necessary, presents nothing
agreeable to the eye. All the sheds and out-
houses, etc., are collected here, and finally a large
space (12) at the end of the garden, near the
stables of the garden horses, which is used solely
for the compost heaps. This arrangement makes
it possible to keep the vegetable garden itself
always clean and elegant, and to use the shelter
of its walls for a sunny promenade. After inspec-
tion of these features we pass the “ pleasure-
ground,” close behind the house, and drive

iMII'ik, „

M\ ‘Uti'ii;',!».''.'

A View of the River as Arranged and Improved by Prince Piickler in his
Park at Muskau
Redrawn from an Old Print

Photograph by Thomas W. Sears
A Rough Stone Bridge in the-Rafk of Muskau

The Park in Muskau

157

through an open grove of trees on the lawn to
the meadow flats which lie between the castle
and the Neisse, and which open several views
toward the castle region as well as toward chains
of hills. The most favorable points are always
marked by simple stone seats on the road.

In a little time we reach a small wood near
the river, follow this for a time, and on passing
out of the wood we cross, by a rustic stone bridge
with a rough stone weir, over the newly chan-
neled arm of the Neisse not far from its junction
with the main stream, and then, turning back,
we climb the western side of the Neisse Valley.

On reaching the top [q. Plan B) we see be-
low, bordering on an oak grove, a lake of con-
siderable area with some wooded islands and a
magnificent forest prospect with the mountains
in the background. At the side down below
stands a fisherman’s hut on a projecting tongue
of land, around which all kinds of nets spread
out and other utensils for fishing invite the vota-
ries of this sport to a rich harvest. Near it we
see, partly hidden by bushes, some wax-bleaching
grounds, connected with a watchman’s house and
an ice cellar. From here, for those who like a
promenade on foot, there leads a narrow path
into thick bushes along the steep shore of the
Neisse to a convenient bathing-place, a resting-
place on the height with various picturesque
views toward the wooded shore of the river, and
then, continuing to the bridge over the Neisse
at Kobeln, on the border of the park (r), from

158 Hints on Landscape Gardening

whence we can return to the castle on the other
side of the river, passing the English house, or
any other favorite spot by sequestered and shady
footpaths.

We will follow meanwhile the drive, and
reach, after a short distance a side of the “pleas-
ure-ground” new to us, at the entrance of which
a gayly colored Gloriette^ executed from a draw-
ing by Herr Geheimrath Schinkel, looks down
from its mound of bloom into the valley (r).
This side is closed toward the road, but presents
toward the interior of the park four separate
bays, which frame in each one a separate picture.
The first to the left is that mentioned on pages
41-42, which I quote as an example of the way
in which unity could be combined with variety
(N. B. of the same kind). (See Plate XVII.)
The second embraces a wide stretch of meadow,
with groups of tall trees, the Neisse with its
tributaries in the middle, and hills covered with
foliage behind, without the break of any habita-
tion. (See Plate XVIII.) The third bay shows
in the distance, about a quarter of an hour’s walk
from the castle, a side view of a portion of the
town with the German church emerging from
the trees, and in the farther distance on the hori-
zon the village of Lucknitz (/) standing out
against a darkly wooded hill. (See Plate XIX.)
Finally, the last bay frames in the ruins of the
old Catholic church {u) of the village of Berg,
flanked by two tall lime trees.

We will drive now within the “pleasure-

Plate XVIII. View of Meadow, Trees, River, and Hills

Plate XIX. Another View of the Castle and Lawn

. I

The Park in Muskau

159

ground,” which is everywhere divided from the
park by a rail fence to keep off the grazing cat-
tle as well as to distinguish quite clearly the
limit which should divide art and nature, and
proceed under a grove of foreign woods and
bushes, and then gradually descend into the v2l\-
ley, getting a near view of the castle from the
west, turn left to the old castle, passing the Platz
with the equestrian statue of the Nibelungen
hero, and arrive, turning sharply east, at a bridge,
from one side of which both castles are seen mir-
rored in the water, and (Plate XX) from the
other (i;) a waterfall, made of colossal granite
stones, of which plenty are to be found in this
region. The waterfall was constructed as I have
indicated, so that it by no means is intended to
represent a bed of rock, which is not natural in
these parts, but rather to look as if the river in
some flood had rolled the stones here, and, find-
ing an obstruction, had merely heaped them up
to an unusual extent. Therefore, several blocks
are scattered in front and as many behind the
waterfall, to bring about the natural effect, but
the sides are clothed with overhanging bushes
and water plants, and herbaceous plants and pots
of flowers, packed in moss, are scattered between
the stones so that they seem to grow out of the
rockery and enhance the rich and natural effect
of the whole. A view of it has already been
given.

Behind the waterfall we leave the “ pleasure-
ground” and continue on the meadow level of

i6o Hints on Landscape Gardening

the park, along the arm of the river as far as the
Lock, where the branch has been led off from
the main stream. Here a weir has been built, to
keep the mass of water which is to be let into
the newly dug channel always under control.
Near the weir a bridge crosses to the opposite
shore. From this point the road rises gently up
the eastern bank on the right of the Neisse in
the woods, as far as the pheasantry (w), which
is not yet completed. I have projected it in an
uncommon form, after the model of a Turkish
country house, for which I must thank Herr
Rittmeister von Moliere, who copied it during
the Russo-Turkish campaign. It will be roofed
with bright glazed tiles, and besides the neces-
sary dwelling-houses for the keeper and his fam-
ily, will be furnished with a salon, which is quite
separated from the rest of the building. From
here one steps out on to a terrace (x) where,
looking under a few acacias, the whole pheas-
antry is seen spread out, while above it, through
a wide gap in the foliage, one may descry the
river, the post-bridge on the highway toward
Sorau, the baths, and the alum and refining works
in the distance. (See Plate XXL) A walk in the
fenced-in pheasantry is not without interest, as
gold, silver, and black and white pheasants are
kept here, and in the green square with a pavil-
ion in its center one can conveniently watch the
feeding of the pheasants and the hundreds of
birds gathering in an instant at the call of the
keeper, and their comical excitement as they dis-

Plate XX. View of Old and New Castles and Lake Lucie

w

The Park in Moskau

i6i

pute for the grains of wheat, quite fearless of
human beings.

This last section, which is not visible on the
plate, I have tried to plant entirely with ever-
greens to give it a charming appearance in win-
ter as well as summer, and to act as a background
for the many colors of the birds.

Connected with the pheasantry, but outside
of its fence, I have built a small dairy for Swiss
cows which are kept here in the neighborhood
for the convenience of the castle. At a short dis-
tance a high chain bridge crosses over a deep
ravine eighty feet wide, and an extended view
over the northwest Neisse Valley opens suddenly
on the other side under an ancient oak. In the
foreground on the slope of the hill is the dairy (y)
arranged in English style, in which milk foods of
all kinds can be kept and prepared and eaten on
the spot in a cool and elegant house, a refresh-
ment which is very welcome after the long walk.

As many people, perhaps, have no exact con-
ception of what a “dairy” is, I will describe one
in a very few words : It is a simple pavilion with
a basin of water in the middle, in which the milk
pans float. All around you find tables and chairs
ready for use. The windows are generally pro-
vided with colored glass, and various milk prep-
arations stand in china and porcelain dishes on
tables, arranged with tasteful symmetry. Some
beds of sweet-scented but not conspicuous flow-
ers, like violets, mignonette, etc., surround the
dairy outside.

1 62 Hints on Landscape Gardening

The next item to attract our attention in con-
tinuing our drive is the temple of Perseverance
(«) to which also an exceptionally lonely path
leads from the dairy in thickets of beech so dense
that the sun has only room to gild the green
dome of leaves. A mountain stream trickles
through this wood and parts, near a rough bridge
of oak-trunks, in the most hidden corner of the
bushes, into several little waterfalls, which have
been managed by heaping up very large stones
collected for the purpose. Many of these small
footpaths in the park are named after ladies who
suggested them, and the inscription shows these
names on a stone at the beginning of the path,
which is useful at the same time for the guidance
of the visitor.

One can arrive at the temple by the drive or
the footpath; in either case one will first be
aware of it only on arrival at the spot. A little
wood of oak conceals it until that moment, and
the roads are purposely laid out for this effect of
surprise. The moment one enters this temple the
view unfolds between single standing pillars of
Silesian marble set on a granite base, and covered
with a gilded iron roof, crowned by an eagle
with wings outspread.^ From the seat at the back
wall of the temple one has a wide view, which
is composed of the course of the stream on the
right, as it gradually disappears in the wood, in

* To avoid all misunderstanding, I repeat that, in order not to break
the thread of my description at every moment, much which is only pro-
posed has to be described as though already complete.

Plate XXIV. The “Prince” Bridge over a Ravine

The Park in Moskau

163

front of the broad side of the castle with its or-
namental flight of steps, and on the left the mill,
the dam, and the foaming, roaring waterfall. (See
Plate XXII.)

The temple is to be adorned with nothing but
a bronze bust standing in the center. I have used
the bust of our King Frederick William III,
because he is a monarch who in every respect
shines forth as a model of Perseverance of our
times, the virtue to which the temple is dedi-
cated. A cornucopia, hanging down from above,
symbolically pours its treasures over him, but in
the evening it will light up with a ray of glory
the head so dearly beloved. (See Plate XXIII.)
A formal flower garden protected by an iron
palisade ends at the steps, not without signifi-
cance— for perseverance in good and right pre-
pares for our lives a bed of flowers, even though
they only bloom within our souls.

We drive now over a second bridge over a
ravine, which I have named “Prince” bridge.*

‘ The giving of this name is in token of one of the most agreeable
happenings in our region. I speak of the presence in Muskau of His
Royal Highness the Crown Prince and his Consort. When I had the
good fortune of escorting their Royal Highnesses, the Crown Prince,
a fine connoisseur, made the very judicious remark that a bridge at the
end of a waterless ravine which it crosses has never a good appearance,
and hence should be more concealed than shown. I had felt this blem-
ish myself, but had no facilities for altering it, as the road, for other
reasons, could not be changed. His Royal Highness then gave me the
advice to face the whole side of the wooden bridge with a trellis of
young oak staves in the form of an arch and to have it overgrown with
Virginia creeper, beneath which the ravine would be seen in the depths
as though under a natural grotto. This gracious advice was followed,
and the elFect not only did away with a blemish, but substituted for it a
considerable improvement. (See Plate XXIV.)

164 Hints on Landscape Gardening

We now proceed, without any distant views in
the woods, first on the heights, then descending
under a small bridge (see Plate XXV) made of
oak branches with the bark left on, and continu-
ing toward the river, along which we go for a
little while, then crossing a broad meadow called
the “ Erlwiese ” (formerly a bottomless morass)
and dedicated to the “ Erlkönig,” and ascending
the height once more, we see at the last bend of
the road the English house {aa) which, in con-
trast with the temple scene, presents the charac-
teristics of gay rural social life. A “ cottage ” in
the foreground, overgrown with roses and Vir-
ginia creeper, contains some rooms reserved for
the “ Herrschaft.” On the left in the shade we
can see between the branches a covered bowling
alley ; a grass plot, with three arbor-like seats
near by for those who wish to enjoy Nature and
the open air. In the central arbor are placed pier
glasses which reproduce the most attractive points
of the surrounding landscape.

A second “cottage ” adjacent serves as a dwell-
ing for the cafe keeper, and as shelter for guests
in unfavorable weather. On the other side is seen
a pavilion, which contains a small ballroom and
two rooms for games. Farther on a bird pole and
targets have been set up for marksmen, besides
a range for pistol shooting, the same thing seen
in Paris at Lepages; also in Pyrmont and other
places.

On a hill opposite stands an isolated salon in
the bushes, built of rough logs of bark, which is

Plate XXV. Bridge made of Oak Branches

The Park in Muskau

165

also reserved for the Herrschaft, and from which
the whole tableau of the crowd enjoying them-
selves below may be viewed just as one may
choose without coming into closer contact. The
village of Kobeln on the outskirts ot the park
spreads out behind this animated foreground, and
remains in harmony with the character of the
whole. In the middle of the village a small bell-
tower was erected, to announce daily the approach
of dusk. The lovers of the idyllic can now with
delight watch the shepherds driving their flocks
home over the plain, and the laborers, after their
day’s work is done, hastening home with song at
the welcome sound of the bell.

The whole district, with a few walks in the
bushes, which in spring are alive with nightin-
gales, is fenced with a trellis of rough branches,
and treated as a “pleasure-ground” not so care-
fully laid out. (See Plate XXVI for the aspect it
presents, and Plate XXVII for the view from it.)

The road which we now follow leads from the
English house, gently ascending to the highest
point of the chain of hills. First there are views
of the Gobelin colony {bb') and the wide flat
surrounding it ; later on they lose themselves in
the woods where only here and there a nar-
row glimpse is afforded of the “ Riesengebirge,”
which assumes an increasingly solemn and silent
character, till one reaches the eminence in the
“Burg ” precinct, where is placed a lonely statue
of the Holy Virgin, this sweetest and mildest em-
blem of the Christian religion, and farther on the

1 66 Hints on Landscape Gardening

terrace, where the cemetery chapel is proposed
(See Plate XXVIII, after a drawing by
Schinkel.)

Eight windows from the old town church of
Boppart on the Rhine, which I was lucky enough
to obtain, and which in the opinion of experts
are by the same hand as the paintings in the
Cologne Cathedral, will adorn this church, as
also a crucifixion on the altar by Hemskerk.

As there are Catholic inhabitants in several of
my villages, and in the town itself, without any
church of their own, they cannot attend, as often
as they might wish, the nearest mass two miles
distant. It is my intention to arrange this chapel
for their worship as well, although its main pur-
pose is to serve as cemetery chapel for the family
of the owners of Muskau, a memento mori^ in con-
stant view of the castle windows, though softened
and mellowed in the distance (as death generally
appears to us in life).

One sees on the plan the sexton’s house near
the chapel, with its Httle garden, and in front
of it a spacious courtyard. The last is sur-
rounded by thick lime walks cut en berceauXy
which have been named after two living men,
well known to the public and my good friends,
the philosopher Gravell and the poet Leopold
Schefer. Religion cannot be in better company
than that of poetry and philosophy, and the tru-
est religion consists precisely of the most intimate
association of both. Hence it will be an appro-
priate adornment if, as I intend, the footpaths

I't.AM- \\\ 1. Knjjlisli Cottage in I'ail

The Park in Moskau

167

surrounding the churchyard which I have dedi-
cated to my friends shall be graced with statues
of those heavenly sisters, Poetry and Philosophy,
whilst the temple itself owes its existence to the
conjunction of both. In a place so big with mean-
ing as this I thought it allowable to have an in-
scription which should show its meaning, and
have chosen the following as indicating my own
faith and the purpose of this church : —

“ In memory of loved ones
Here reposes only the vesture of the soul.

Which in those eternal regions
Transformed and ever progressing,

Ever creating, ever growing,

Ever shaping and ever plastic.

Godlike lives with God.”

On entering the courtyard one observes against
the wall an ancient altar found here, surrounded
by the emblems of the steeds of Zeutiber and
Svantevit, which represent the dragon conquered
by Christian angels for the salvation of man.
Entering the church itself, we see at the end the
high altar I have just mentioned, with an altar-
piece carved in wood, brightly painted and gilt,
a beautiful and appropriate work of some old
master. We also see at the sides two small chap-
els destined for the obsequies of the family. In
the middle of the church on the right stands the
pulpit, which will be built on the following plan,
in imitation of an old church in Silesia : Moses
with the Tables of the Law, and the Jewish high
priest with the scapegoat decked for sacrifice, as

1 68 Hints on Landscape Gardening

the root of our religion, are sculptured in life-
size. Between them rises a stem surrounded by
a light spiral stair, which unfolds at the top in
the form of a gigantic lily constituting the pul-
pit. From the leaves of the lily appear the three
beatitudes. Faith, Hope, and Charity, and the
Angel of Judgment crowns the baldachin above,
with the scales of good and evil in his right hand.
On the pillars opposite the pulpit is the golden
calf in high relief, with the Israelites dancing
round it, as an ever-present warning against the
greatest lust of man — the worship of Mammon.
Behind the high altar a draped portal leads through
a short corridor into a dark temple, at the end
of which a niche is disclosed, where, brightly
lighted from above and from each side, stands
the Apollo Belvedere.

I hope that sensible people will not charge
me with blasphemy in my intention to bring into
such close contact the temple of Apollo and his
cult of joy with the Christian temple, since I
had in view here the illustration of the general
idea of religion, and therefore it seemed to me
appropriate to surround its most sublime flower

— the Christian church — on the one side
with a piece of crude heathendom, as the rudi-
mentary beginning, and on the other with that
of one of the noblest, though sensuous, cults

— that of the gods of Greece. For all relig-
ions have something Godlike, and God has
been patient with them all, is patient with so
many to-day. Why should we reject the mem-

Plate XXVIII. Proposed Cemetery Chapel

The Park in Muskau

169

ory of them totally, since we now know the
better way ? Not as present objects of religious
veneration, but as indications of historic develop-
ments do they find their place here.

A quarter of an hour’s walk from the chapel
we reach the “Burg” [ee^ crossing, by a stone
bridge of five arches, a ravine one hundred and
twenty feet wide and forty feet deep, overgrown
with evergreens at the sides. The view from here
has already been described at the beginning of
this chapter. In the interim, during the construc-
tion of the projected buildings, a bench is placed,
surrounded by a mixed forest, so that one must
mount a step to get an open view. The arrange-
ment of this “ Burg ” plan also is due to my
worthy friend Schinkel, without whose inex-
haustible talent, and amiability no less inexhaust-
ible, I should perhaps never have been enabled
to arrive at a satisfactory execution of my ideas.

It is indeed no small advantage for us to have
such a man, whose beneficial activity on behalf
of the Fatherland is, however, hardly yet suffi-
ciently appreciated. How often have I wished
that the English, who spend such enormous sums
daily for artistic purposes, almost without results,
could obtain a talent equal to his with all their
good-will and their wealth. What treasures has
not Mr. Nash spent in such matters, and what
would not Schinkel have achieved with the same
sum !

Yet even here in my own country are many
things to regret.

170 Hints on Landscape Gardening

Schinkel’s name is renowned, it is true, and
becomes more so every day, yet to the general
public only his architectural achievements are
known, far less the extraordinary universality of
his genius, that native artistic force, which in
every branch of art is entirely at home, and
which can animate the rigid stone to make the
grandest architectural monuments, can in sculp-
ture find the most manifold subjects for its exer-
cise, and can conjure on canvas with ready hand
the most impressive pictures.

I feel impelled to say a few words concerning
one of the most marvelous compositions in the
latter art, pictures which in my opinion have
not since the time of Raphael perhaps been
vouchsafed to genius. And although my remarks
are really foreign to the matter of this book
(which is less ambitious in its aim), yet perhaps
they may not be quite unprofitable or quite un-
welcome to many.

I am speaking of those grandiose and profound
poems, destined for the wall of the museum in
Berlin, which have aroused the greatest attention
and enthusiasm of all artists in our country, and
whose completion for some unknown reason is
still postponed. Yet we may with confidence
hope that the magnificence of our King, to
whom native art already owes so much, since he
has provided for his people something to look at
for centuries to come, will not withhold forever
from the most intellectual section such a rich
mine of instruction and pleasure. A few pious

The Park in Moskau

171

persons who, probably by reason of the happy
contrast, have selected the chief city of Frederick
the Great for a rubbish-heap, and whose propri-
ety goes so far that they would provide every
Cupid with a pair of breeches and every Venus
with underskirts before permitting them to be
exposed to the public eye, have immediately
come to the front with the dictum that the nude
in these pictures is in any case highly immoral,
but still more inappropriate in the vicinity of
the holy cathedral. (Even so these cheap holy
ones have recently protested against telegraph
wires on the church towers.) Yet with just as
much right should the whole museum be con-
demned, where for some years now the unutter-
able has occurred, and great and little have had
plentiful opportunity for becoming familiar with
the nude and “ the gods of Greece.” If we can
view these Christian pictures, countless altar-
pieces, edifying representations of the pains of
hell, etc., mingled heterogeneously with the old
classic art, why should the Christian cathedral
be unable to endure the proximity of Schinkel’s
world-embracing and world-historic ideas per-
sonified in beautiful human form ? Yet St. Peter’s
in Rome, the cathedral of Christendom, permits,
in the near proximity of the Vatican, profane
wall-paintings, nude pictures and statues of all
kinds; and does not, in the Capitol, the altar of
Ara Cceli lie, as it were, cheek by jowl with a
Bacchus and the Venus of Praxiteles in the bare
adornment of nature ? But I forget that Catho-

172 Hints on Landscape Gardening

lies are not so orthodox as Protestants, and that
the Pope is far too liberal for our too Puritanical
ones. Better that I should take my comparisons
from our daily life here, where in my opinion
the contrast is equally remarkable. For do not
the theater and the church here clasp hands in
the most amicable manner, do not opera dancers
every night do their honorable best to initiate
Catholics and Protestants, pious and impious,
into the mystery of the natural lines of the hu-
man body ? Gauze and stockings do not prevent
the study of the human form, but nobody ob-
jects.

More considerable and important than this ob-
stacle seems to me the desire that Schinkel’s great
works may be completed while their creator is still
alive to direct their completion, for how quickly,
how suddenly, the flame of life is extinguished,
even in the most robust, often unforeseen by all !
Schinkel, too, is not immortal, but his works will
be if only their free and complete development
is permitted, and they be not strangled or silenced
in their very birth.

We had stopped at the feudal castle in my
park. Plate XXIX shows it and its surroundings.

During the excavations in this neighborhood,
only a year ago, a well-preserved skeleton was
found in an overgrown thicket, only three feet
underground, apparently that of a fine young
man ; for it had excellent proportions, a phren-
ologically well-formed skull, and all the teeth
without a single gap. Whatever is found in the

The Park in Muskau

173

park, alive or dead, should be used for the bene-
fit of the place ; and so I have also utilized this
dubious find. A grave of green grass with a sim-
ple stone cross has been made for this skeleton.
The inscription states that the bones of the un-
known rest under the cross, and from the bank
near it the eye plunges into a wide and deep
forest ravine.

Almost the whole of the considerable space
which is taken up by the feudal castle buildings
is used for service ; only the detached tower with
the so-called old castle is arranged for the use of
the master. Not far from the castle Platz is
a narrow plain about a mile round, used to make
a little race-course with “ obstacles,” in which I
have taken the liberty of using as my model,
not the domestic but the Irish style, which, even
for the best riders and most excellent horses,
present real obstacles ; as, for instance, clay banks
six feet high with a ditch beyond ; stone walls
five feet high, woodpiles and ditches twelve and
sixteen feet wide. The course is so small that
one can see all the evolutions quite distinctly
from the amphitheater in the middle, which is
to be provided with three rows of rising seats
which are to be dug in the sides of the hill; and
during the whole race one need never lose sight
of the horses.

This is the utmost point of to-day’s excursion,
from which we return to the castle by a road,
marked with an arrow in the plan, whose ac-
quaintance we have yet to make.

174 Hints on Landscape Gardening

During this drive an advantageous view is dis-
closed from the double bridge {ff) of the mill
{SS) Plate XXX), and at the end one may
in passing cast a glance at the gay colors of the
blue flower gardens (see Plate XXXI), with which
we take our farewell of all the park and garden
scenes.

SECOND CARRIAGE DRIVE

Although this drive, like the third which still
confronts the reader, covers as much ground as
the foregoing, I may say that, since there are
fewer objects to enumerate, a shorter description
will suffice.

We first take our route (follow the arrow)
directly to the guest house, an extensive estab-
lishment, arranged for the convenience of visitors,
which is not yet finished. This short piece of
road, which we passed yesterday, but from the
opposite direction, and the neighborhood with all
its views, appears, although seen from the same
point, a very different one, on account of the
altered direction.

We soon find ourselves in a new domain on
the western hills, which stretches along the town,
climbs the steep slope behind it, and then pro-
ceeds through the village of Berg, through fruit
gardens, until we reach the Wendish farmhouse
\hh) called “Sorgenfrei” (Sans Souci), which is
built quite in the style and within the means of
a well-to-do farm-owner in the village. From
this point we can see nearly the whole park spread

Plate XXX. River and Mill

I?

The Park in Muskau

175

out, and immediately at our feet we can overlook,
as on a map, high above the roofs of the town,
the streets in all their detail, the castle (whose
towers do not rise to the level of our feet),
the lake Lucie, the flower gardens with the
“pleasure-ground,” and now the sky is covered
with thick clouds, which only permit a glimpse
of the distance. A little garden of grass and fruit
surrounds the house, in whose precincts stands
the ruins of the oldest church in the Oberlausitz,
for the upkeep of which help was asked in Rome
in the last century. Although small, from an
architectural point of view it is not without in-
terest, and is very picturesquely placed in the
middle of the old churchyard under the shade
of tall limes. (See for this view Plate XXXII.)

Even in my grandfather’s time there stood on
this point an old tree surrounded with benches,
to make the most of this pleasant spot, and
it often serves me, I gladly acknowledge, as a
double memento, first of thanks to God, who
gave me the sense to rejoice as a child in his
sublime works, and second, in recognition of
that simplicity which, even though by a con-
ceited person it is considered only momentarily,
is yet the condition in which peaceful happiness
smiles most, and from which evil cares stay far-
thest. The road along this whole tour was very
difficult to make, as the many ravines and deep
bays could only be made passable by bridges.
Luckily wood here is cheap and superabundant,
as in many other places in the Fatherland. With-

176 Hints on Landscape Gardening

out this convenience the completion would per-
haps have been too expensive for my income.
The greater part of this plan just described is
planted with fruit trees only, an idea which I
have borrowed from Chief Gardener Lenne, the
carrying-out of which certainly gives very fine
results when the place selected is suitable. Here
between village and town, and extending between
the gardens of both, visible in the far distance
from the valley, there was no course more prac-
tical than further to cover with masses of fruit
trees the mountain which was already terraced
and skirted with fruit trees, so that in summer
the bright green of fine grass might be seen shim-
mering under the tree-stems. But since the shape
of most fruit trees is poor and ugly, I have tried
to amend this by the mixture of the beautiful
wild apple tree.

From the fruit plantation we arrive, close be-
hind the village, at the upper edge of a narrow
valley, whose steep sides are lined with old
beeches, and where here and there the headings
and shafts of the alum works are visible. The
road then turns again toward the plain of the
mountain projection and skirts a little wooded
lake near the village, until, in a quarter of an
hour, we reach (//) the vineyard, passing by sev-
eral nice cottages of the hill folk, where, above
the vineyards, a very wide prospect is opened on
the regions of Bautzen and Gorlitz. In the mid-
dle, the highest point six miles off, appearing
singularly isolated, divides the horizon, and is

The Park in Muskau

177

surrounded by the sea of forest which covers the
whole region. After refreshments at the vine-
dresser’s hut, we follow the hillside by a zigzag
drive which encloses the alum works, cross the
wooden chute by which the ore is conveyed, and
maybe alight once more from the vehicle, to visit
some of the shafts, which are illuminated on cer-
tain days during the bathing season, decorated
with colored alum crystals, and inspect the huts
and other works in detail, if we take an interest
in such things.

Nature is wild here, and although the soil is
sandy and for the most part covered with firs, it
is much interspersed with colored gravels, black
ore, or brown coal deposits which rise to the sur-
face, and many very picturesque aspects are shown
in the precipitous, abrupt character of the ground,
which seems as if it had been hurled about in
an earthquake. We even find in one spot a sort
of small volcano, yet not an artificial one, but a
fire in the earth, which is shown by a perpetual
wreath of smoke and occasional bursts of small
flames from the subterranean glow of a brown
coal deposit, causing a good deal of anxiety to
the miners.

In striking contrast to the chaotically torn
strata, directly behind the foundries are the gar-
dens of the baths, which come as a pleasant sur-
prise with their wealth of roses.

A convenient drive leads from the “Kur-
haus” (//) round an extensive “pleasure-ground”
to the mineral baths [mm)^ the moor baths, and

178 Hints on Landscape Gardening

the lodgings [nn), and many promenades to the
nearer mountains. Much care has been taken to
get as great a contrast as possible with the views
of the regions visited yesterday by dwelling on
its varied and rugged character, as well as by
introducing new subjects, or at least leading to
them in a new direction.

The lover of free, untrammeled Nature will
therefore be most pleased with this region. It
will be easy for him to find deepest solitude in
dense forest and glade, where there is nothing to
disturb his thoughts, except at most the monot-
onous tap of the iron hammer, close by at Keula,
or a more gently hammering woodpecker, or
perhaps the sudden apparition of a miner’s black
head, which appears and disappears like a ghost
out of the earth.

The “ pleasure-ground ” here is also treated
quite differently from that in the neighborhood
of the castle. Public baths, it is obvious, have
quite other requirements than those which are
suited to a private residence. Shady walks and a
number of comfortable and roomy resting-points
are here specially called for, as well as a choice
of plants whose flowering season is due in late
summer, the principal bathing season. A small
flower garden is on the right of the “ Kurhaus,”
and is enclosed by high and steep bluffs, which
are by nature so rich in odd formations that I
hit upon the contrivance of treating them in the
taste of an Oriental garden with various brightly
colored pavilions on the steep and sheer heights.

The Park in Muskau

179

Isolated as it is, and, as I have remarked, sug-
gesting, on account of its natural peculiarities,
an original treatment, the carrying-out of my
plan will I hope be quite appropriate, especially
as in grounds, which are intended for the gen-
eral public, something to suit all tastes is more
of a consideration than in the case of a decora-
tive garden, which requires a more critical ar-
rangement. Already and without much assistance
this part of the “ pleasure-ground ” has something
exotic about it, (Plate XXXIII shows this fin-
ished on the map ; Plate XXXIV gives a view
of the whole baths ; Plate XXXV the view from
the salon of the moor baths; and Plate XXXVI,
the garden of the pavilion for drinking the
waters (00), a little place, closed all round, deco-
rated only with baskets of centifolia rose and a
large antique camp bench with hortensias all
round it.)

When we have visited all these, which will
occupy some hours, we get into the carriage
again, and follow the previous drive in a long
and high mountain ravine, where we meet first
a range for shooting at the target, and farther
on, in a wide basin formed by the mountains
around, various games and booths [pp) as well
as an open race-course and a jumping arrange-
ment for the exercise of the horses.

We then continue up the hill, pass a coal-
works and a railway which leads through the
galleries of the mine to the alum huts, and en-
joy from the height another wide view, of which

i8o Hints on Landscape Gardening

the chief point is the ‘‘ Wussina,” a deer park,
distant a short mile, which I shall describe more
fully later on.

After this beautiful drive completely around
the bath and its surroundings, we go downhill
and leave the mining region, returning along
the Neisse and passing by several lodgings in
various styles for the bathers, and finally reach
the castle. Here, as one can see, only the short
stretch of road used yesterday is traveled : how-
ever, because we come from the opposite direc-
tion, we get different views.

THIRD CARRIAGE DRIVE

It is impossible to deal always with the same
material without becoming somewhat monoto-
nous. Nevertheless, for the exact study of the
plan of the grounds, a detailed guide is indispen-
sable to the reader. All that I can do to lighten
the task is to strike a middle course which, with-
out boring him too mercilessly, should put him
in a position to work out the whole in his own
mind with the help of the plans.

Our “ trip ” this time begins where the drive
of the first day left off (follow the arrow), and
after passing the inevitable short portion of the
road taken already, but this time in the opposite
direction, we reach a region which was only
seen in previous days at a distance and cursorily,
near the great Neisse bridge. We drive for some
time along a dam between the river and some
tall oaks, until we climb the Lucknitzer Hill,

The Park in Muskau

i8i

where a belvedere [pp] has been built. (See
Plate XXXVII.) The extended drive along the
ridge of the mountain embraces the real Neisse
Valley with the fields and meadows of the town
burghers, which lie at the foot of the high alum
mountains and through which the river runs in
sharp curves.

The six towers of the little town appear from
this place so high and so distant from one another
that a stranger might think he was entering a
big town. This view gradually disappears behind
the hills, and next we enter a young deciduous
woods with no distant view, which takes half an
hour to cross by a lonesome road, until we reach
the highest plateau in the park, where at a sharp
turn of the road the wide country and the whole
chain of mountains, from the snow summits to
the most easterly of the Bautzner Range, lies
before us, embracing half the horizon. The fore-
ground is formed of dark spruce forest and the
projecting pinnacles of the “Burg.” Here an ob-
servatory has been planned. On the other side are
meadows gradually shelving away, and coupled
with other enclosures, together with the large
race-course intended for racing country horses
and the ancient buildings of the stud (rr). (See
Plate XXXVIII.)

The road from here leads through pasture
grounds, partly also through loosely connected
woods in which the acacia dominates, and in a
short time reaches the above-mentioned stud,
which offers no interest except to a horse-lover.

1 82 Hints on Landscape Gardening

We will, therefore, not linger any time here, but
lead the reader quickly to the “ Burg ” farm by
the meadow, where a model farm was not sought,
but only a good income. Model farms are no
doubt of much public benefit, yet are in them-
selves only sacrifices to others whereby satisfac-
tory results can be achieved only by means of
extremely costly experiments, which are then
imitated by one’s neighbors without further test
expense, and hence they are the only ones to
profit by them. Now, since the artistic purpose
of my grounds occasioned quite sufficient outlay,
I found myself compelled to limit my endeavors
to the establishment of a model park, whose
results, of course, as I cannot deny, would not
bring in so much money as the lessons of model
economy.

With these observations, dear reader, we have
arrived at the sheep farm (rr), whose high-bred
sheep I was for two years compelled to degrade
on account of the unfavorable wool idea of that
time ; that is, to make them more lucrative by
a coarser but richer wool crop. We come next
to the large race-course (//), the use of which I
intend shortly to offer to the “National Asso-
ciation for Breeding Fine Horses.” It is half a
German mile long, one hundred and twenty feet
broad, with plenty of room for lookers-on, and
forms a large oval, the interior of which is di-
vided into seven separate fields, each planted with
different fruit trees. From the heights this pre-
sents the view of a colossal star.

The Park in Moskau

•83

From the “stands,” which are erected on a
high point, one overlooks the whole course as
well as a romantic region, with some small lakes.
Stables for the horses “in training” and all the
other requisites will be furnished close by. One
of the above lakes will serve a purpose of a
peculiar character. It will be planted, including
its islands, with a mass of weeping willows, and
quarried rocks scattered about, inscribed with the
names of dear departed ones in silent memory
{uu). The race-course at one point passes close
by this lake of mourning, where at the same
moment one may look down as into a hollow at
the race-horse in his joyous flight and upon the
monuments of those who now repose so deeply
and whose race on this earth has forever been
run. The large nursery from which the greater
part of the park was planted might also be
thought worth our attention as we pass {vv).
The neighboring lake yields the needful water,
which, however, is sparely used for watering, in
order to harden the young plants from the be-
ginning, for which reason also a soil of only
medium quality was selected. From the race-
course the road leads to the Gobelin colony, a
collection of cottages of various shapes, which
we have already mentioned [bb'). (See Plate
XXXIX.) They are mostly inhabited by the
garden laborers, and are scattered on a height,
with a few old oaks, which may, perhaps, be
several centuries old. Among them a few years
ago a small treasure was found, buried probably

184 Hints on Landscape Gardening

at the time of the Thirty Years’ War, of which
I have kept several coins. This is the only treas-
ure which I can boast of having found with all
my rummaging in the earth ; on the other hand,
that treasure has not failed me which the father
bequeathed to his son when he urged him to
dig for it round his vineyard, and I therefore
recommend the same experiment to every land-
owner.

We return to the castle past the village of
Kobeln (ww), which also is inhabited only by
garden laborers, along the Neisse, by a road on
which, for the greater part, we have not driven
before. I must remark once more that we are
driving in the opposite direction from that part
of the road with which we are already familiar,
in order to lay stress on the fact that, with all
our various drives and crossings during these
days, we have never seen exactly the same pic-
ture repeated, and yet have touched at all the
chief points, and have omitted rtothing but those
manifold details which require too much time,
those never-ending variations of the inexhaus-
tible music of Nature, which are only quite
discoverable in all their nuances by the sturdy
pedestrian.*

' I need hardly point out that in the present disposition of the
grounds, if the three carriage drives are made entirely in the opposite
direction from that here described, an almost wholly new series of dif-
ferent views must be presented, although they are formed out of the
same materials, as also quite different views may be obtained by short
cuts which I have not described. If we add the footpaths as well, eight
days would be necessary to know the park from end to end.

Plate XXXIX. The Gobelin Colony: Cottages of the Garden Laborers

■ vsa

The Park in Muskau

185

Although the description of the park ends
here, a few words are due concerning more re-
mote questions which are connected with the
subject. As I have the great advantage of exten-
sive and connected territories, and as no advan-
tage should be neglected, I have attempted to
utilize it in the following manner : —

A mile southeast of Muskau, toward the Si-
lesian Mountains, I laid out a park for wild deer
with a villa and huntsman’s hut ; and in a south-
easterly direction, at a distance of two miles, a
larger park for stags and wild boars. The foun-
dation for this last was afforded by an old hunt-
ing and pleasure castle, where for centuries plenty
of game was sacrificed to the hunting nobility.
Both parks are connected by twin roads, going
to and fro, which are reserved for the owners
alone and never leave my land, and lead through
the most interesting portion of the country, con-
nected with the castle park, so that one may pro-
long the drives already described in one or other
of these places for the whole day, if one wishes.
A fifth road, besides, has been projected, for di-
rect connection between the two parks for wild
animals, which will lead unbroken for several
miles through the main woods, and which, as
the chronicles mention, borders the royal graves
and Swantewit’s hills of sacrifice. I have at-
tempted to restore, in the form of sacrificial
altars, some grotesque stone forms found during
excavation.

The first grounds laid out, which I have al-

1 86 Hints on Landscape Gardening

lowed to retain the former Wendish name “ Wus-
sina” (Wilderness), consists mostly of deciduous
trees, up to a very wild part covered with tall firs,
which has been given the name of“ Wolf’s Lair,”
in honor of the huntsmen. Occasionally we make
the place resound at midnight with the Devil
music of Weber, which has a doubly gruesome
effect in these appropriate surroundings. A forest
stream flows through the Wussina, and into the
Neisse, which bounds two sides of the grounds.
The third boundary is formed by a broad road
and a low fence, which the deer can easily leap,
as they do not thrive in fenced-in grounds, for,
although one of the most delicate of beasts, the
gentle deer, it seems, can least of all endure loss
of freedom. The terrain is very mountainous,
and lonely forest ravines, with deep meadow
valleys at the foot and various views toward the
“ Riesengebirge ” from the higher portions, make
up the chief characteristics of these grounds. (See
Plate XL.)

A quite different character, on the other hand,
is shown in the large deer park, a district for-
merly enclosed by a high fence, which it takes
six to eight hours to circuit. The enclosure has re-
cently been pulled down by my orders and simple
canals substituted; partly because with such an
accumulation of game I lost too much from the
poachers, who became very bold in consequence
of the light punishment which was imposed when
they were caught ; partly because I found that
wild animals in a confined space degenerated very

Plate XL. View from the Wussina Deer Park, Moskau

1

1

1

:i

V

)

1

7

4

The Park in Muskau

187

much, becoming smaller, leaner, and less tasty,
and also too tame, almost like the fallow deer
which in England resemble flocks of sheep. Be-
sides, game can be kept together in certain dis-
tricts without fencing, by appropriate fodder and
other practical means without hermetically seal-
ing them from other pastures, and letting them
pine and deteriorate in depressing captivity. An
experience of fifteen years has quite convinced me
on this point."

It was singular that two of my most opulent
neighbors began to lay out fenced deer parks at
the very time when I had my own fences pulled
down. They had taken fifteen years to make up
their minds to imitate me. I have no doubt that
fifteen years later they will again follow me, for
every one likes to become wise by his own expe-
rience.

The park lies quite in the plain, and presents
merely an endless wooded tract with very few
elevations, but is remarkable for its very fine old
timber, mostly oaks, spruces, and pines of unusual
size. The latter, with their tall, smooth trunks,
sometimes one hundred and fifty feet high, are
more like the pines of Italy than our common
and picturesque kinds.

But what makes this wood so fresh and de-

• To prevent the liberals from falling on me on account of this, I may
inform them that out of consideration for the farmers I hold only a third
of the game which the law permits, in proportion to the area, which
contains one hundred and thirty thousand acres, and that I let them
have wood free besides, to enable them to fence their own fields wher-
ever there are gaps.

1 88 Hints on Landscape Gardening

lightful, and gives it a particular charm, is the
almost unbroken carpet of huckleberries, cran-
berries, ferns, and wild rosemary which densely
cover the ground. The bright green and shining
leaf of the huckleberries, alternating continually
with fern, is undoubtedly preferable in a wood to
the finest lawn, and certainly cannot be artificially
created in such lusty growth ; nay, even where
these plants were taken away in former times for
litter, they have never grown again in the shade.
It seems that more than a man’s lifetime is re-
quired before large stretches become richly clad
with them. This deer park, the castle of which
contains plenty of room for many hunting guests,
is used as head rendezvous for stag, boar, and roe
hunting. The most interesting hunting for many,
however, is heathcock shooting; growing else-
where rarer every year, it can still be enjoyed
here in great abundance. Indeed, one may hear
from thirty to forty birds “calling” simultane-
ously in the territory of the park. For this sport
one must rise very early, and as city folk are
averse to this, the following plan of mine met
with much appreciation: One drives from Mus-
kau at midnight by torchlight through the woods,
one of the cheapest as well as most agreeable
methods of illuminating, then spends the rest of
the time blowing the reveille at the hunting
castle, and immediately afterwards “beats up”
the heathcock, as it is called in hunting terms.
In this manner ladies could frequently take part,
and on their account I may be excused for men-

Plate XLI. Spruce Tree in Muskau Park
One Hundred Feet High

Plate XLII. Oak Tree in Muskau Park

The Park in Muskau

1 89

tioning this detail, which is hardly pertinent to
the matter.

For stalking other game ten or twelve differ-
ent tracks have been made, which also lead to
the finest parts of the wood. These are divided
among the guests strictly as their temporary prop-
erty, so that each one may make use only of the
one designated for him, and is certain, therefore,
to avoid any accident on it. The huntsmen would
consider it a very unbecoming intrusion on the
rights of the others if anybody refused to abide
by this rule. Therefore, the possessor may be cer-
tain day and night of being able to follow his
pleasure, comme il V entend. I owe this contrivance,
as practical as it is pleasant, to the kindly assist-
ance of Herr Oberforstmeister and Professor
Pfeil in Berlin, after whom one of these laby-
rinthine, serpentine paths is even now called the
“ Pfeilstrasse.”

Here there is such a number of splendid trees
that I could not deny myself the pleasure of
having two of them portrayed. Plate XLI rep-
resents a spruce tree standing alone, only one
hundred feet high, it is true, but from which
masses of needles hang down from the lowest
branches to the length of seven feet. I once had
it illuminated with paper lanterns in the form
of colossal fruits like a Christmas tree, such a
Christmas tree as perhaps has never been seen
elsewhere. Plate XLII shows a remarkably
shaped oak, eighty-five feet high, with a cir-
cumference of the trunk of twenty-four feet one

190 Hints on Landscape Gardening

ell (yard) above the earth. The strongest branches
are nine feet in circumference.

The last plate, XLIV, gives a view of my cot-
tage in the garden of the hunting castle, a quiet,
secluded spot, whence I bid a hearty farewell to
the amiable reader, if he has held out so far with
this dry matter, sincerely hoping that my small
efforts may have been of some service to those
who have devoted themselves to the same hobby,
and also that I have drawn the attention of others
to an occupation which perhaps has appeared to
them in too subordinate a light. For when once
the landowner has begun to idealize his prop-
erty, he will soon become aware that cultivation
of the soil will secure for him not only pecuniary
advantage, but also real artistic delight, and how
thankful Nature is to him who dedicates his
powers with love. So then, if each one does his
best for his own tirelessly and thoroughly, and
the thousand facets combine easily and well to
form one ring, the lovable dream of the St. Si-
monians might become true of a universal cult
of our mother earth. For this purpose, however,
it would be well to turn aside a little from these
sad politics, which absorb everything and give so
little in return, and revert a little more to happy
art, whose service is in itself a reward ; since for
the ruling of the State we cannot all strive. But
to seek to improve himself and his property is
in the power of each one of us, and it is even a
question whether in such a simple manner, in
honest and homely endeavor, the so-much-de-

Plate XLIV. Cottage near the Hunting Castle

The Park in Muskau

191

sired freedom may not be attained with more
calm and safety than by the many experiments
in superficial theoretic forms of State. For he
only can be free who commands himself.

THE END

INDEX

Index

Architecture in connection with
landscape design, 32-33.

Ashridge, 38.

Bautzner Range, 181.

Blumenbach, 9.

Braunsdorf, 127.

Brown, landscape architect, 29.

Buckingham Palace, 70.

Buried treasure, 183-84.

Buxus (Box), 71.

Cattle in parks, 19-21, 26.

Chiswick, 71.

Claude Lorrain, 22.

Comparison of landscape art
with that of the actor, the
architect, and the musician,
117-18.

Cultivation of grass land, 55, 56,

57-

Cutting down trees, 59.

Deciduous trees, how to be used,
28-29.

Deer, maintenance of, 186-87.

Distant view, treatment of, 27, 30.

Drainage, 50-51.

Eaton Hall, 38.

Employment of trees around
buildings, 33-34.

England, 35.

Evergreen trees, how to be used,
28, 29, 74.

Farm, model, 182.

Fern, 188.

Fichte, 105.

Fir, 28.

Flower beds, 45, 73.

Flower garden, 178, 179.

French parterre, 33.

Garden, true function of, 22.
Garden art, true principle, 22;
of France, 22;
of Romans, 22;
of Switzerland, 22.
Gardener's Magazine, 35.
Gardens, design, definition of,
42, 74.

German landscape gardening,
criticism, of, 1-7.

Gobelin colony, 183.

Goethe, 34.

Gothic building, 33, 34, 42.
Grasses, 49-54; S^S7-

Ha-ha ditch, 27, 43.

Harmony of colors of trees and
shrubs, 69.

Holly, 71.

Huckleberries, 188.

Italy of the Renaissance, 33.

Juniper, 28.

Kobeln village, 184.

Lake in St. James’s Park, design
of, 91.

Landscape gardening, English,
criticism of, 3-7, 19-20, 126.
Laurel, 71.

196

Index

Lawns, 43-44.

Lenne, landscape architect, 7, 176.
Lilacs, 76.

Lombard poplars, 33, 66, 79.

Malahide, 37.

Memorial Lake, 184.

Michael Angelo, 18.

Mistakes, treatment of, 14-16.
Moss under trees, 53.

Mountains, Oberlausitz, 120;

Silesian, 120.

Muck or humus, 49.

Muskau, 15.

Nash, Wm., 71, 72, 73, 91.
Nature, 117.

Neisse Valley, 127, 180.

Oaks, 187.

Pantheon, 18.

Park design, definition of, 13,
42, 60.

Parks, English, 19.

Paths, 74.

Pine, 28, 33, 120, 187.

Plans, of parks and garden, 16-17.
Planting trees, 60-66.

Pleasure-grounds, 19, 39, 178.
Prussia, 21.

Piickler, fitness to teach “ art of
gardening,” 7-9.

Raphael, 170.

Regent’s Park, 91.

Repton, 9, 36, 91.

Rhododendron, 71.

Roads, construction of, 86-89;

design, 81-85.

Rousseau, 40.

St. James’s Park, 91.

St. Peter’s at Rome, 18, 171.
Shrubberies, 75.

Site of building, 31-35.

Spruce, 28, 33, 187, 189.
Symbolic expression in landscape
design, 34, 35.

Temples, 34, 42.

Warwick Castle, 37.

Weber, 186.

Windsor Park, 70.

Wussina, 186.

Yew, 28.

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