Page 293

   THE architect labors almost in vain, if, after all,
 when the building is completed, the embellishment of
 the surrounding grounds is neglected, or, what is
 nearly as bad, left to the tender mercies of 8oi-di8ant
gardeners, who really know little more of landscape
gardening as a fine art than mankind at large do of
the soil and climate of the moon.  It is a source of
consolation, however, to the architect that there has
been a great awakening on the subject latterly, in the
United States, and that the prospect for its general
advancement is continually brightening.   Possessed
as we are of every variety of country, from the rugged
mountain landscape to the gentle undulations of the
far-expanding prairie, including an amount of lake
and river scenery unparalleled in the geography of
any other country on the globe, we can have no com-
plaint to make against Dame Nature, but, on the other
hand, should feel grateful that she is so bountiful to
the denizens of this New World, and hope that the
field thus open before us will be ultimately improved
in such a manner as to become, like the rural embel-
lishments of "merrie England," a source of national
pride.
  We are informed by history (but we must be brief
on this point) that "the Romans were the first who
introduced landscape gardening into England, as we
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