made just what a park should be. I suppose there are various opinions in relation to Central Park, New York. A great many persons who have seen that park, and have a very good idea of park scenery, think it has been made too much like a specimen of natural forest merely, with the underbrush cleared up. From the nature of the ground, which is rocky and uneven, they could not make vast stretches of lawns, which is in reality a park. Any of you gentlemen who have seen London Park, and seen the vast area of grass and lawns, will certainly say that that is very much more desirable than very irregular ground, planted with trees and shrubs, in which you cannot see a quarter of a mile in any direction. It may be pleasant to city people, who cannot go to the country; but those who think a park is something more than that, a place beautifully planted, with open vistas and stretches of lawn, would not be so well pleased with it. At any rate, Central Park has struck me as not laid out in the most judicious and best manner for a city park. It is beautiful in its various features, and any park which the city of Boston may lay out should have all these various styles of gardening as episodes to the general plan. The general plan should be large, beautiful curved avenues, with various trees- all the trees that will grow in our climate-planted there, as the gentleman has said who spoke just before me [Mr. Derby], and with as few shrubs, and as little undergrowth, as possible; only, as I say, as episodes. We may have a Dutch garden, and an Italian garden, and a fancy garden, and various spots should be selected with that view; but the general plan should be, to have extensive views, good drives, and fine avenues and walks. That, it seems to me, should constitute the real character of the park.

Park scenery is somewhat different from mountain scenery or the scenery of an ordinary landscape; it has a distinct character of its own. The parks in Germany are laid out in a most magnificent manner, and far excel those of any other country. In England, the ground near London is somewhat diversified,

but not nearly so diversified as it is here; yet sufficiently so to make a very beautiful park.

You desire, of course, to know all the spots around the city which are available. As I said before, Cambridge is still Cambridge, and it may remain Cambridge; but the question of its annexation to Boston will soon come up, and I think it my duty, as it certainly is a pleasure, to give you my impressions of this ground, that in discussing this great subject, which is to have such an important influence in relation to the future of Boston, everything may be considered, and every point looked at, before anything is decided upon in relation to the question. As I have said, this ground is now mostly unoccupied; it is made up principally of orchards, fields and pastures. That part down near the colleges would, of course, be the most expensive; but undoubtedly an avenue on each side of the park, with the assessments made, would pay for much of the lower part of that ground. Gentlemen would desire to live upon the borders of such a park, and they would build beautiful residences on these avenues. I have no doubt, if you wished to go down nearly to Cambridge colleges and begin there, the whole of that ground could be obtained without very great expense. I speak, however, only from general facts.

A beautiful drive could be made around Fresh Pond. The grounds of Mr. Payson, formerly Mr. Cushing's, contain one hundred and eighteen acres, and there are some two or three hundred acres in the rear, reaching to an avenue. There are four or five hundred acres, and you can go beyond as far as you please. It seems to me that this piece of land will just answer your purpose.

Then again, you are in the vicinity of Mount Auburn, a place which many who visit the park would desire to see. Then there is Cambridge Cemetery, which is as beautiful as Mount Auburn, lying upon the borders of Charles River. Then you are in the immediate vicinity of the Observatory and the

Botanic Garden, which might be included in the park. Going but a short distance, you come to Cambridge Common; and you have all the features which constitute a beautiful and elegant park.

I shall not, of course, go into the subject to show how important it is, or into the details of the way in which a park may be made profitable, like that of Chicago. All I desire, at present, is to direct you attention to this piece of land, its importance, and its central situation.

ALDERMAN PRATT. If I understand you correctly, your idea of a public park is a place to gratify the cultivated taste of a few rather than a place of recreation for the masses of the people.

Mr. HOVEY. No, sir; oh, no. I think recreation can be better had upon open land, and upon land properly diversified, than in a jungle of bushes. I would have a portion of these large areas of lawn so dotted with trees as to be shady, but not so shaded that the ground would be wet, so that your children can play and run, and romp there as much as they please. But not simply beautiful to walk round, and look at this and that variety of trees, all crowded together, so that you can only walk in little narrow walks, upon an asphaltic pavement. I would have drive-ways and gravel walks, and a lawn and grounds for children to play upon.

ALDERMAN PRATT. I understood you, in substance, to ignore a variety of scenery.

It

Mr. HOVEY. No, sir. I said I would have, besides these extensive lawns and open spaces, all kinds of gardens. would never do at all to ignore scenery. As I have looked up Central Park, it has seemed to consist almost entirely of winding walks. There is very little soil there, and they could not make level and broad surfaces. They had to put a little soil on, and they planted an immense mass of trees, which have grown so rapidly, that if they are not cut away soon, they

will be merely like a mass of trees such as you will see in any woods. There are Norway spruces and arbor vitas planted so thickly that the lower branches have already begun to decay and in three or four years their beauty will be gone. I think we should do away with all these forests; but half or quarter of a mile should be set out as a labyrinth, through which you can wander, and lose yourself in its paths. You can have your Dutch garden, with clipped hedges and trees, your Italian garden, and everything of that kind; but the main part of the ground should be an open lawn and avenues bordered with shade trees.

Mr. F. S. MERRITT then addressed the Committee. He said: I suppose I shall be called an "old fogie." It is very easy to give play to the imagination, and fancy that you should like to have avenues laid out and parks made. I would like to have everything beautiful, but I think the first thing we should look at, is what it is going to cost, and what benefit it is going to be. I know I shall be told by some of my friends that I am very foolish to oppose this project, to have the city of Boston go into a land speculation to the extent of twelve or eighteen hundred acres; because they will say, my property would be increased perhaps fifty thousand dollars by it. But I am not willing, and I trust I never shall be, to prostitute myself to help perpetrate an imposition upon the tax-payers of the city because my property will be increased thereby. What we want is open breathing places, where the children can gambol, as Mr. Hovey has said, and get fresh air and exercise; but if you have a park miles away, very few children of the poorer classes are ever going to see it, or, if they see it at all, not more than once a year.

We have the Central Park at New York brought up to us as an example of what advantage a park is to a city, and to how great an extent its cost is repaid by the increased value of

property in the vicinity. But you must bear in mind, as one gentleman has remarked, that Boston is spread out like a fan. New York is a large city, with very little land adjoining it; Boston is a small city, with a great deal of land adjoining it; and I think were it not for the desire that people have to make money for their own pockets out of these large parks, we should hear very few advocating them. I believe in widening the streets, both in and out of the city. I would have you straighten and widen the streets in Dorchester and Roxbury, and all over the city, so that it shall be well for the people who own land adjoining. I would have you make breathing places in different parts of the city; but you have no right to do injustice to one part of the city by drawing away the tide of wealth and population to another part. It is the inevitable growth of New York which has crowded the population up to Central Park, and given them that taxable property. It is the inevitable growth of Boston, which must spread itself all around us, that will give us an increase of taxable property. Buying a park is not going to increase the value of property; it is the inevitable growth that increases it and if the eight-hour law passes, I do not know any reason why we shall not see the agricultural laborers swarming into the city. I see no reason why men who are working fourteen or sixteen hours a day on the land should not say to themselves, "I can get a living by working eight hours a day at some mechanical or manufacturing business, and I will go to the city or village." They will give up working on the land. The farms of New England to-day are growing up to brush. Boston must inevitably be a large city, and it will be a large ci y of poor people. If land is going to be increased in value by the opening of these parks, then it is going to be too expensive for poor people to live in. Who is it pays the taxes on real estate to-day? Is it the rich men who own the real estate, or the poor men who hire it? Look at rents to-day. See how hard it is