0^ :V»^.: -ov^ ri T O o O/Tv '•_-..:.\lL'^ \ ^^-^^^ ^0- "^^ '?.'^' ^^.C,^^ ^ ^.-^^^-/^ /'\ ^^^*" ' FAIRMOUNT PARK. WITH THIRTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS. PHILADELPHIA: CLAXTON, REMSEN. AND HAFFELFINGER. 187 1. CONVEYANCES TO AND THROUGH THE PARK. To visit the Park from any depot or hotel, and return to the same or any other depot or hotel, take a hackney-coach by the hour, or From Pennsylvania Central Railroad Depot to Fairmount : take Market Street car, and change at Twenty-third Street; time, 20 minutes. North Pennsylvania Railroad Depot to Fairmount : take Sixth Street car, and change at Vine street; time, 60 minutes. Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Depot to Fairmount : take Fifteenth Street car, and change at Arch Street; time, 45 minutes. Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Depot to Fairmount: take Park Accommodation train; time, lO minutes. Reading Railroad, Germantown and Norristown branch, to Fairmount: take Union Line at Spring Garden Street ; time, 20 minutes. New York IJnes, West Philadelphia Depot, to Fairmount : take Market Street car, and change at Twenty-third Street; time, 20 minutes. New York Lines, Walnut Street wharf, to Fairmount: take Walnut Street car, and change at Twenty-third Street; time 45 minutes. New York Lines, Kensington depot, to Fairmount: take Sixth Street car, and change at Vine Street; time, 60 minutes. The Girard House to Fairmount : take Ninth Street Line direct ; time, 30 minutes. The Continental to Fairmount: take Ninth Street Line direct; time, 30 minutes. The St. Lawrence, take Eleventh Street Line, change at Arch Street; and the Wash- ington House, Eighth Street Line, direct; time, 25 minutes. The American Hotel to Fairmount: take Fifth Street Line, and change at Vine or Arch Street; time, 30 minutes. The Colonnade Hotel and La Pierre House to Fairmount: take Fifteenth Street Line, and change at Arch Street; time, 20 minutes. The Merchants' Hotel to Fairmount : take Arch Street Line, direct ; time, 30 minutes. The St. Cloud Hotel to Fairmount: take Arch Street Line, direct; time, 30 minutes. At Fairmount : take Park carriage, or steamboat for the various points of interest in the Park, and return to Fairmount. From Fairmount to Pennsylvania Central Railroad Depot : take Spruce Street car, and change at Market Street; time 20 minutes. Fairmount to North Pennsylvania Railroad Depot; take Green Street car, and change at Fifth Street; time, 60 minutes. (O 2 CONVEYANCES TO AND THROUGH THE PARK. Fairmount to Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Depot: take Race or Arch Street car, and change at Thirteenth Street; time, 45 minutes. Fairmount to West Chester Railroad Depot: take Spruce Street car, and change at Chest- nut Street; time, 15 minutes. Fairmount to New York Lines, West Philadelphia Railroad Depot : take Spruce Street car, and change at Market Street; time, 20 minutes. Fairmount to New York Lines, Walnut Street wharf: take Spruce Streetcar; time, 39 minutes. Fairmount to New York Lines, Kensington Depot: take Green Street car, and change at Fifth Street; time, 60 minutes. Fairmount to Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Depot: take Park Accommodation train; time, 10 minutes. Fairmount to Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, Germantown and Norristown branch: take Green Street car to Ninth Street ; time, 20 minutes. Fairmount to Girard House, Continental, Washington House, and St. Lawrence : take Spruce Street car, and change at Chestnut Street; time, 25 minutes. Fairmount to the American Plotel and Washington House: take Union Line, direct; time, 30 minutes. "airmount to Colonnade Hotel and La Pierre House: take Spruce Street car, and change at Chestnut Street; time, 20 minutes. "airmount to Merchant's Hotel: take Green Street Line, direct; time, 30 minutes. "airmount to St. Cloud Hotel: take Arch Street Line, direct; time, 30 minutes. OTHER MODES OF CONVEYANCE, ileading Railroad, Park Accommodation train, from Thirteenth and Callowhill Streets to Fairmount, time 10 minutes; Columbia Bridge, 20 minutes; Belmont, 25 minutes. leading Railroad, Germantown and Norristown branch, from Ninth and Green Streets to Wissahickon Station, time 20 minutes; and by same to Chestnut Hill Station, time, 60 minutes. lace and Vine Street cars, from Exchange to Fairmount, 31 minutes; to Thirty-Fifth Street near Solitude, time 42 minutes ; to Hestonville, near George's Hill ; time, 60 minutes. Jnion Line, from Navy Yard and Richmond to Fairmount ; time, 50 minutes. rhe Ridge Avenue cars, from Second and Arch Streets to Edgely Point Lane, the entrance in the East Bank, 40 minutes; to the Falls and the Wissahickon, time, 60 minutes. rLJi®s @r THJE PHILADELPHIA. © m II S; y WMrTA © Ml Et T® TMI E Nl AY/T. BACHELORS f G' roci /o FAIRMOUNT PARK. SKETCHES SCENERY, WATERS, AND HISTORY. ^ sJ!%A^ J-t^t^ PHILADELPHIA: CLAXTON, REMSEN, AND HAFFELFINGER. 1871. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 187 1, by CLAXTON, REMSEN, AND HAFFELFINGER, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. All rights reserved. COLLINS, PRINTER. OBJECTS OF INTEREST. PAGE Fairmount 12 Fairmount Water Works .... 13 The Fountain 16 The Mineral Spring 17 The Barge-Houses 19 The Skating Club House .... 22 Lemon Hill Mansion ..... 24 Grant's House 32 The Schuylkill Water Works . .32 The Tunnel 32 The Solitude Villa 39 West Philadelphia Water Works . 42 The Sweet Brier Mansion .... 43 Lansdowne Concourse 49 The Michaux Grove 53 George's Hill 54 The Belmont Reservoir .... 56 Belmont Mansion 57 PAOK Chamouni 67 The Trees at Rockland .... 69 The Woodford Mansion .... 70 Mount Pleasant Mansion . . . . 7' The Ravines 73 The Belmont Water Works ... 77 Moore's Cottage 7^ Maple Spring Museum . • • • 93 The Log Cabin 94 The Lover's Leap 97 Mom. Rinkle's Rock 100 The Monastery 102 The Pipe Bridge 105 The Devil's Pool 107 Valley Green 108 The First Fountain 109 Indian Rock no Chestnut Hill "2 (5) ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Fairmount T. Moran, from nature 12 The Fountain " << 16 The Boat-Houses " •' 10 Apparatus of Humane Society . From cut in possession of the Society , . .22 Lemon Hill Mansion . . . , H. Faber, J. E. Sharp, from nature .... 24 Robert Morris's House . ... " from the painting by Samuel Breck . 25 The Solitude " " picture in John Penn's poems 39 The Fisher's House " " lithograph by C. G. Childs . 34 The Three Perch Fish 37 Sweet Brier Mansion . . . . H. Faber, from the painting by Samuel Breck . 43 The View at the Bridge . . . T. Moran, J. E. Sharp, from nature .... 47 The Lansdowne Pines .... " Drake, " .... 49 The Lansdowne Mansion . . . H. Faber, J. E. Sharp, from studies and Birch's views 50 The English Arms 51 Belmont in the Olden Time . . H. Faber, J. E. Sharp, from studies and nature 57 View from Belmont T. Moran, from nature 59 Chamouni in Winter . . . . H. Faber, J. E. Sharp, from nature .... 67 Mount Pleasant Mansion ... " " " .... 71 Sweet Brier Ravine T. Moran, from nature 73 Moore's Cottage H. Faber, J. E. Sharp, from nature .... 78 Music " " composition .... 79 View at the Falls T. Moran, " from nature .... 80 Fort St. Davids Schell, Crosscup, and West, from studies . . 85 The Wissahickon T. Moran, T. M. W., " ... 91 The Wissahickon Entrance . . " from studies 93 The Hermit's Well 95 The Drive T. Moran, from studies 103 The Bridge at Creshein Creek . " " 106 The Devil's Pool " " 107 Valley Green " Smithwick, from studies .... 108 The First Fountain " Drake, " .... 109 Chestnut Hill " " «« .... 112 (6) THE COMMISSIONERS OF FAIRMOUNT PARK, 1871. MORTON McMICHAEL, GEO. G. MEADE, DANIEL M. FOX, SAMUEL W. CATTELL, HENRY HUHN, FREDERIC GRAFF, STRICKLAND KNEASS, N. B. BROWNE, THEODORE CUYLER, JOSEPH HARRISON, Jr. HENRY M. PHILLIPS, ELI K. PRICE, J. H. PUGH, GUSTAVUS REMAK, WILLIAM SELLERS, JOHN WELSH. (7) "The Schuylkill, sacred to the barge of mirth, Its green banks consecrate to pleasure's paths." " Fairmount ! on whose tall top the waters lie, Lifted as in a great baptismal font ; The height from whence the river deity Pours, from his giant and refreshing urn. The stream which slakes a grateful city's thirst." " In the far landscape, winding slow, the silvery line Of tranquil Delaware." " Here, stranger, stay ! these are the sacred grounds Which knew the patriots in the days agone. Here trod the noblest form the land has known." The New Pastoral. ( 8) FAIRMOUNT PARK. TT^AIRMOUNT PARK, at Philadelphia, is the most extensive, and in -■- natural advantages the most attractive, among the pleasure-grounds of Europe and America. (9) lo FAIRMOUNT PARK. It borders and includes the Schuylkill River for a distance of ovei seven miles, and the Wissahickon, a tributary stream, for a distance of over six miles. It begins at Fairmount, a point on the Schuylkill distant about one and a half mile from the Centre Square of the city, and termi- nates at Chestnut Hill, on the Wissahickon, a distance of nearly fourteen miles. Of the two principal sections of this Park, the one bordering the Schuylkill contains 2240 acres. The one bordering the Wissahickon con- tains 450 acres. The entire Park comprises nearly 3000 acres.' It will require for access to its several portions more than fifty miles of carriage road, and one hundred miles of road-way, paths, and connections. The Park contains a large number of native, many foreign trees, shrubs, and vines, and a great variety of indigenous flowers. A catalogue of trees in the Schuylkill section gives 34,000 ranging between eighteen and twenty-seven feet in circumference ; under eighteen feet, 70,000; and of hard-wood shrubs and vines, 200,000. The dense character of the woodland along the Wissahickon has pre- vented any absolute calculation ; it is estimated that there are over 200,000 trees in this section; it is heavily wooded for the distance of six miles. ^ Old John Holmes, who wandered over these grounds when their posses- sors were the aborigines, in 1689 quaintly and truly wrote : — "Here's store of timber trees of the best sort, Both for our use and also to transport, Cedar, birch, maple, and black walnut fine ; The ash, oak, hickory, and sweet-scented pine. With such abundance more both great and small, That scarcely any man can name them all." ' Second Annual Report of Commissioners of Fairmount Park. 2 Eighty thousand imported Norway spruce seedlings are noticed in the 2d Annual Report in addition to these. FAIRMOUNT PARK. II Of herbaceous and cryptogamic plants, the catalogue gives 321 genera, and 655 species. Its principal river, the Schuylkill, has an average breadth of a quarter of a mile; in some of its portions winding so as to present the appear- ance of broad lakes, at others showing a full silent flow for long dis- tances. The Wissahickon is one of, if not the most remarkable of all known waters, as a type of the purely romantic in scenery. The Park has, besides, twenty small streams, tributaries of these, with a medicinal spring and many others of pure cold water/ in some places found bub- bling through the greensward, in others trickling down the rocky hill- sides. It has every variety of scenery — cascades, green and wooded islands, meadows, uplands, lawns, rocky ravines, high hill summits, and open fields. The Park has also the remains of the primeval forests as they stood in the days of the aborigines, and old historic mansions which connect the present era with the days prior to the Revolution, and preserve the memory of the greatest statesmen, jurists, and heroes of America."* The main carriage road from the Park entrances passes on the left hand a considerable elevation in terraces planted with lines of trees. This ele- ' One hundred and fifteen springs were located in the Park in 1870. — Third Annual Report. * In works of art very little has been done. There are at Fairmount five good speci- mens of wood-carving by Rush, a Philadelphia artist of the early part of this century ; and two colossal bronze groups, a colossal bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, executed by Randolph Rogers, Rome, and a small fountain of excellent design and finish, recent contributions of citizens of Philadelphia to the Commission, will be placed in the Park during the present season. 12 FAIRMOUNT PARK. vation was originally a rocky summit, covered with the primeval forest, and called "Faire-Mount," the name which it still bears and has given to the whole Park. FAIRMOUNT. Fairmount has its first association with the Founder of our State. His eye contemplated this fair mount as his place of residence, and, though he did not execute the purpose, the selection assures us of a taste which here, certainly, has met the most universal approval ; and, among all the FAIRMOUNT PARK. 13 men of those days, there is no one with whom our Fairmount could be more appropriately associated. The Founder was, with all beside for which we hold his name in veneration, a lover of nature ; for himself, having most pleasure in the country life. He gave the hill beyond its first name, by causing a vineyard to be planted there. He designed Philadelphia to be and remain " a green country town ;" and laid out its four open squares to be so forever ; he would have even kept the borders of the Delaware a grassy slope ; he called his State — Sylvania — and made the most blessed treaty the world ever saw (the only one that did not end nor begin a war), under the shadow of a tree. The principal attraction of Fairmount is the Water Works. THE FAIRMOUNT WATER WORKS.^ Philadelphia was first supplied with water from the Schuylkill in 1799; these works were commenced in 181 2, and were put in operation three years afterwards. They were originally run by steam-power. The Dam was commenced in 1819. Water flowed over it for the first time in 1821, and in the fall of 1822 the first wheel started and the use of steam was discontinued. The building in which these steam-engines were erected is still standing, and since 1835 ^^'^ ^^^^^ occupied as a saloon. Adjoining the saloon is • During the occupancy of Philadelphia, Sept. 26, 1776, to June 18, 1778, the British had pickets in the Robert Morris Mansion. Their line of redoubts began in Kensington and extended by Bush Hill, terminating at Fairmount. The redoubts were visible on the Fairmount Hill until the completion of the last reservoir. 14 FAIRMOUNT PARK. the entrance to the first range of the water-wheel houses. A second range of wheel-houses, subsequently built at right angles with the first, extends ti)wards the Dam. Very considerable changes have been made in the first range of houses since their erection, and all the old wheels are being replaced by turbines. The works when complete will have a pumping capacity of 34,191,619 gallons per twenty-four hours. The Dam was entirely rebuilt in 1842-3; its overflow is 1 148 feet 10 inches in length, and 12 feet 6 inches in height above low tide. The Hill at Fairmount contains four reservoirs supplied by these works, holding 26,996,636 gallons. The water-level is ninety-six leet above the city datum;' the stand-pipe is fifty feet high from its base, and thirty feet above the level of the reservoir when full. Analyses of this water, made in 1845 ^^^ 1S52, show a grade of purity higher than the supply of New York, and much higher than that of London. The monumental bust of Frederic Graff,^ tlie engineer by whom these works were designed, was erected here by the Councils of Philadelphia, June i, 1848. The fountain opposite the wheel-houses, Leda' and the Swan, was brought from the Centre Square, where the first works were erected. The two colossal figures in the saloon. Justice and Wisdom, were carved for the occasion of Lafayette's reception in this city, in 1824, and were the supporters of the City Coat of Arms placed on a triumphal arch erected in front of the old State House, in Independence Square; when first done, they closely resembled marble. The east side of the reservoir gives a fine view of Girard College, the 1 The datum is a gi-ade based on a high-tide water-level of the Delaware. ' The father of the present Chief Engineer. s Modelled in 181 2 from a celebrated belle of that day, Miss Vanuxen. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 15 most classic building in America; the south shows the lower bridges of the Schuylkill, and the City ; the west gives long reaches of the Park, terminating with the dark hemlocks at Belmont. At the foot of the reservoir lies the broad expanse of the Schuylkill. The main carriage road, after passing Fairmount, descends mto an open plaza; in which are, a fountain, a pavilion which covers a mmeral spring, the Park carriage stand, the barge houses of the Schuylkill Navy, and the Steamboat Landing. i6 FAIRMOUNT PARK. THE FOUNTAIN. This fountain occupies the site of an ancient fish-pond; in this pond were many goldfish which found their way into the Schuylkill by canals dug through the plaza when the grounds were, some years ago, given over to speculative purposes. The fish now in the inclosure of the fountain are the lineal descendants of these, and were some years ago FAIRMOUNT PARK. 17 taken from the Schuylkill, where they have formed a very numerous colony. THE MINERAL SPRING. This spring has from a very remote period enjoyed a considerable reputation for the strengthening properties of its waters; they are chaly- beate. On summer mornings, visitors are found around this spring, sometimes in sufficient numbers to recall the scenes at the more popular waters of Saratoga and the Badens. THE SCHUYLKILL RIVER. An ancient fisherman of the State in Schuylkill, thus describes to the writer this river as it was until the building of the Fairmount Dam and the removing of their old fishing house from the Park limits in 1822. On the east bank, from Fairmount to the Falls, there were bold rocks— two remarkable ones at the Hills, and one at the Columbia Bridge. On the west bank,* above the Fishing House, there was also a large rock; but, for the most part, the shore on that side was shelving to the river. There were more islands than now, among them was one above the Fishing House, thickly wooded, a favorite resort for the people; a narrow channel ran between it and the shore, and the trees on the island and along the shore interlaced their branches. The island known as Peters, at the Columbia Bridge, was larger. The feature which characterized most noticeably both the shores and the island was ' Nothing can equal the beauties of the cottp-cTccil which the banks of the Schuylkill present in descendinrr towards the south from the Falls to Philadelphia. — Ckastellux l8 FAIRMOUNT PARK. a great profusion of wild flowers, coloring them with their various hues. On the bluffs of the east bank, and along the ridges of the west, the land- scape-gardeners on the country-seats had changed the natural character- istics of the grounds to the formal style of the times, but between these and the river all was untouched. The river was then subject to the rise and fall of the tide ; this made at places, where its bed was irregular and rocky, falls or descents ; there at the going out of the tide it ran or fell with some violence and shock, giving rise to one of its Indian names, "The Noisy Water;" this ceased with the building of the Dam, and it then assumed its present broad, even, silent flow; this, and the submerging of some of the islands by the back-water, and a decrease in the size of those which remain, are the most marked features of the change from that early time. Portions of the bluffs, also, are concealed by the bridges which now span the river. Other portions of them have been used by quarrymen, but many of those old landmarks — bluffs, islands, and shelving shores — are still clearly traceable; and the placid beauty of its now broader and quiet waters is even more attractive than its rapid flow before the erection of the Dam. The grounds of the old country-seats have lost much by neglect, yet they have also gained by the removal of the narrower, separate designs and road-ways of the individual owner, and their absorption into broad general effects and avenues for the people. The flowers are also reveal- ing themselves again along the shores, while the grounds around the old mansions, so dear to our remembrance, have been preserved and are being restored, so that this beautiful river, then so attractive, is returned again with a heightened effect to the condition of its earlier era. As one of its namesi evidences that it was to the aborigines, so it is to us also, ' Called by the aborigines "Ganshewehanna," the noisy stream ; and " Manayunk," our place of drinking. The present is a Holland name, originating with the first settlers. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 19 "our place of drinking," and it is to the popular determination to retain it for this purpose we owe mainly the preservation of its shores as a great public pleasure-ground. And surely never before in the world had a people in any city, even in the remote East or classic lands, such "flower-crowned bowl" from which to drink, as is this river; nor ever before beautified a common necessity of life with so perfect a measure of all its romance and poetry. THE SCHUYLKILL NAVY. "The healthful and manly exercise of rowing." Boating on the Schuylkill begins with the light canoe of the Indian. From this rude though graceful origin, and following close upon it, came the boats which composed the squadron of "the Colony in Schuylkill," and the bateaux of Fort St. David's. This squadron, called also "the Schuylkill Navy," was composed of the "Shirk" and the "Fly;" their 20 FAIRMOUNT PARK. successors, under an act passed in 1762, for the augmentation of "the Navy in Schuylkill," were the "Manayunk" and "Washington," re- spectively fifteen and seventeen feet long, they were built of mulberry timber, with ash oars; these remained until 1822 within the Park limits. The barge of the Founder, also, sometimes appeared on these waters; it was one of much stateliness — had a regular crew and officers — pulled six oars, and bore the broad pennant with the Proprietary's arms. The Founder had enough of the great Admiral's blood in his veins to delight in boats, for this barge he always manifested much solicitude, and in a letter to James Logan, whose words go straight to the true waterman's heart, he says: "But above all dead things, my barge; I hope nobody uses it on any account, and that she is kept in a dry dock, or, at least, covered from the weather." After these came the pioneer clubs, which preceded the present organization; the first of which, the "Blue Devil," was organized 1S33. Its first barge, the "Blue Devil" participated in the earliest regatta of which we have record (Nov. 12, 1835). In this regatta, the Ariel, Nymph, Dolphin, and another were entered, four-oared barges; and the Cleopatra, Falcon, Sylph, Blue Devil, Metamora, Aurora, and Imp, eight-oared barges. The organiza- tion of the present Schuylkill Navy was effected in 1858, and the first re- gatta took place in 1859. It then numbered eleven clubs, the Bachelors, University, Keystone, Camilla, Independent, Undine, Neptune, Che- bucto, Quaker City, Nautilus, and Excelsior ; and twenty boats, the Linda, Iris, Gazelle, Ariel, Lucifer, Arab, Spree, Atlanta, Gipsey, Naiad, Whisper, Undine, Fawn, Irene, Menanka, Cygnet, Spider, Nautilus, Intrepid, and Falcon. It is now, both in its appointments and organiza- tion, the most complete association devoted to rowing in the world. It numbers ten clubs and sixty-seven boats. It has four hundred and seventy-one members; and its boats and houses are valued at ;g 100,000. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 21 In addition to the regattas, and usual daily exercise, the clubs of this Navy sometimes make long excursions. One of these was made in 1861, by the Malta Club, on the Susquehanna to Havre de Grace ; another, to Easton, by the Pickwick Club, to which the Crescent is the successor. In May, 1859, the Bachelors Barge Club made an excursion on the Delaware River and Delaware and Raritan Canal to New York. And a double scull outrigger, the Fawn, of the Undine Club, made the same excursion, September 10, 1867; distance 105 miles, rowing time eighteen hours. An entire revolution is going on in the class of boats used by the Navy, which will have a very important bearing on the future of this organiza- tion and boating generally. The shell is superseding the others. This means necessarily an advance in the science itself, and, with the river best adapted in this country on account of its almost uniform quiet at all sea- sons, its width, length, and freedom from traffic, may ultimately render this organization the universal centre for test trials of skill and endurance. These trials in England, and to a great extent in this country, concentrate an interest which may be called national. 22 FAIRMOUNT PARK. THE PHILADELPHIA SKATING CLUB. Incorporated 1861. Its objects are improvement in the art of skating, and securing efficiency in the use of, and proper apparatus to rescue per- FAIRMOUNT PARK. 23 sons breaking through the ice. The active members in 1S64 were 260, honorary 10; they now number 350. The house occupied by the Club is forty feet front by sixty feet in depth, two stories high, built of fine gray stone, and pointed. The building is of Italian architecture, and ornamented with a handsome cupola and flagstaff fifty-five feet high. The roof is covered with slat- work, and encircled with a secure and handsome railing, and has a cupola. The first story, forty by sixty feet, is appropriated entirely for the life- saving apparatus and barge boats. The second story is divided as fol- lows: A Ladies' or Reception Room, fronting on the water, with a Retiring Room, the Members' Room, Executive Committees' Room, and the Board of Surgeons' Room. This room is furnished with all kinds of the most approved apparatus for rescuing and restoring suspended respiration to persons drowning, consisting of — i. Badges; 2. Cord and reels; 3. Ladders; 4. Hooks; 5. Axes; 6. Life-floats; 7. Station flags; 8. Caution flags; 9. Life-lines; 10. Air-hole guards; 11. Boats; 12. Blankets, grapnels, and drags. The boats are made of cedar, small and light, about one hundred pounds in weight, and sixteen feet long^ (see plate). The records of the Society show that two hundred and sixty-one lives have been saved through its instrumentality. Among its members is Col. James Page, who still, as he was half a century ago, is our most graceful skater, and linked with all the boyish memories of the passing generation. ' All these are placed at the disposal of the Commission by the Society. 24 FAIRMOUNT PARK. Leaving the Plaza, the road ascends' the second of these hills, the site of Robert Morris's home, known of late years as Lemon Hill.' :^nj2wm Near the mansion which stands there,^ and of which this is a drawing, the road passes on the left hand two Tulip Poplars and Pines, which J It passes on the right hand four deciduous (swamp) cypress-trees, the remains of a large group. 2 Called formerly "Old Vineyard Hill." The Founder sent a skilful gardener from France and introduced the culture of foreign grapes here, but with no great success. His contributions to the attractions of nature should also be mentioned: he sent from England walnuts, hawthorns, hazels, and fruit-trees; a great variety of rare seeds and roots from Maryland, also some panniers of trees and shrubs ; and directed by his letters that "the most beautiful wild (lowers of t^e woods" should be transplanted to his grounds. 3 The late Mr. Pratt, a merchant of this city, was building here in the summer of 1796, probably erecting this mansion. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 25 Stood there during the Revolution ; and are noble representatives of the primeval forest. The general character of the grounds remains un- changed. The forms of the superb terraces are still visible, although the rare flowers, vases, and statues once there are gone. There is a good view of Fairmount, the river, and the city from the hall-door of this man- sion. In the old house, ^ which stood here, Robert Morris resided from 1770 to 1798, twenty-eight years — a period embracing the Revolution and the Presidency of Washington. He had a fine mansion in the city, but his house on these grounds was his home ; winter and summer his hours of rest and enjoyment were passed here. In 1776 (Dec. 29) he wrote to Baltimore, where Congress, having fled from the city, was sitting: "I have always been satisfied with Philadelphia and the Hills. At the same time I have been constantly prepared; my things packed up, horses and carriages ready at any moment ; I dine at the Hills to-day, and have done so every Sunday. Thus, you see, I continue my old practice of mixing business with pleasure; I ever found them useful to each other." ^ The cut is a fac-simile of Robert Morris's home, from a painting by the late Samuel Brack. 26 FAIRMOUNT PARK. And when the evil days came, in which he had no pleasure, still he clung to this place. From "the Hills" he wrote (Feb. 8, 179S): "It is the only place of calmness and quiet my foot was in all day yesterday." ROBERT MORRIS. Robert Morris was the representative of the capitalists of the Colonies, the most honorable, and the most unfortunate. As such, he has left, of his public life, three records, intelligible to his own and to after genera- tions. His first record is a letter, a short extract from which follows; it was written on these grounds. From the Hills on Schuylkill: — "July 20th, 1776. "It is the duty of every individual to act his part in whatever station his country may call him to, in a time of difficulty, danger, or dis- tress." His second record is his signature to the great Declaration, and the pledge of his financial abilities and his private fortune to the cause of the Colonies. His third record is the ledger of his counting-house and the folios of the Government, of which he was the Treasurer from the year 17S1 to the close of the Revolution. These show that he held the army together, from hour to hour, through the Revolution, by the credit of his individual name.' Among the items of the accounts of this faithful steward are some which illustrate the whole. 1779 and 1780 were the most distressing > "The individual notes of Robert Morris circulated as cash through the Colonies." — Chastelliix (1780). FAIRMOUNT PARK. 27 years of the war. On a pressing occasion, during this period, Washing- ton communicated to Judge Peters the condition of the public stores : his army was without cartridges, those in the men's boxes were wet; if attacked, retreat or destruction was inevitable. In this emergency the Board of War, of which Judge Peters was Secretary, was powerless ; all the lead accessible was exhausted, even to the lead spouts of the houses, and the Board was then offering for it, without obtaining any, the equiva- lent in paper of two shillings in specie a pound. Judge Peters showed Washington's letter to Mr. Morris, who was with others at a reception at Don Juan Merailles's, the Spanish Minister. By a fortunate concurrence, a privateer had that day arrived at the wharf at Philadelphia, one-half consigned to Mr. Morris. He said to Judge Peters, one-half the cargo of the Holka is consigned to me; she is at the wharf, take the one-half of the fortunate supply — it is ninety tons of lead; the owners of the. other half are standing there; get theirs also. But, said Judge Peters, they will make no further advances to the govern- ment. Then, said Mr. Morris, I take myself their portion and deliver it to you. The arrangement was at once made. That night one hundred hands were employed. Before morning a supply of cartridges was on its way to the army. Again, December, 1776, from his broken army on the Delaware, Washington wrote that without specie an offensive movement could not be made. This letter was sent by a confidential messenger to Mr. Morris; but it seemed impossible, in the general confusion and flight of the citi- zens, to raise the sum required. Among his acquaintances, however, was a cautious but straightforward capitalist. To this man he made his wishes known. What is the security for this sum? said the capitalist. My note and my honor, was the answer of Morris. On that security I will loan 28 FAIRMOUNT PARK. the money, was his answer. With this money Washington was enabled safely to cross the Delaware and secure the decisive result at Trenton. At the most critical period of our nation's early history, 1781, Judge Peters, Robert Morris, and Washington were together at the Head- quarters of the Army, on the North River. Washington received on that occasion a letter from the Count De Grasse, announcing his determination to remain in the West Indies with the French fleet. Washington read the letter, which destroyed at one blow his plan of operations on the city of New York, and resolved at once on the expedition to Virginia. Turn- ing to Judge Peters, he said. What can you do for me? With money, everything; without it, nothing — was the brief reply, as he turned with an anxious look to Morris. Let me know the sum you desire, said the Patriot Financier. Washington's estimates were made that night. Morris placed, within the required time, the amount of the estimates in Judge Peters's hands — the army moved. The result was the surrender of Lord Corn- wallis, at Yorktown — the successful close of the war for the Independence of the Colonies. Judge Peters gives the requirements of Washington, for this brilliant and final effort, as follows : " Seventy to eighty pieces of battering cannon, and one hundred of field artillery, were completely fitted and sent on for service in three or four weeks, progressively; and the whole together, with the expense of provisions for, and pay of, the army was accom- plished on Mr. Morris's credit, which he pledged in his notes, which were all paid, to the amount of one million four hundred thousand dollars. Assistance was, 'tis true, afforded by Virginia and other States, from the merit whereof I do not mean to detract. We had no money in the War Office chest; the Treasury was empty; and the expedition would never have been operative, had not most fortunately Mr. Morris's credit and FAIRMOUNT PARK. ' 29 superior exertions and management supplied the indispensable sine qua non:'^ These are items in the account of this faithful steward. And when it is considered that bills of credit finally would buy nothing; that cattle died on the road to the army for want of public money to buy provender; Jthat the Colonies themselves ceased to comply with the requisitions upon them ; that clothes for the soldiers were sold to pay the more suffering needlewomen who made them — we may estimate how constant were those drains upon his private fortune, and how large was their aggregate. From the spirit and the word of that letter from "the Hills," Robert Morris, from the first to the last, never swerved. The signature which he appended to the Declaration was repeated again and again to notes which were met as they matured, and which amounted to millions; but this ex- penditure of his private fortune, princely as it was, was not the measure of his service. The folios of the Government show a reduction of ex- penses, while its finances were in his hands, from eighteen to four millions annually, and this still was not the full measure of his service. These pledges of the individual wealth of a man, who was himself the national coffer, inspired 2& well as sustained the country; this completes the mea- sure of his services, for this he was called in his day the right arm of the Revolution. In that old mansion, which Morris so loved, and which was at last his refuge, have been assembled as his guests the most honored men in this land. Franklin, John Adams, Hancock ; many of the signers of the Declaration, members of the Continental Congress, and officers of the > Judge Peters to Alexander Garden, Esq., Belmont, Dec. 20, 1821, MS. John Adams was for some time his near neighbor. His house was at Bush Hill. 30 FAIRMOUNT PARK. Army and navy. On these grounds he received from all the States, and from patriotic hearts in other lands, tributes to his financial power and financial honor ; resolutions and gifts which he preserved through all his after misfortunes. Here he originated those enterprises, evidences of which yet remain on this river, and which, far in advance of his age, extending over all the States and embracing the prominent industries of his time, culminated in his utter ruin. Here also took place that last sad scene in his life — the great financier bowed down with age, helpless to preserve his own fortunes, following an officer down these terraced grounds, to be consigned^ by laws now for the honor of human nature obsolete, to a common jail. And here remains forever the regretful remembrance, that the owner of land in all the States; of a palace, whose marble walls rose in mockery of his fate before the black stones of his prison ; and of these fair grounds — a man whose money, as much as their strong arms, trans- ferred to the people the title and the lands of this great commonwealth, and the broader area of the nation, met such a fate. The palace mocks no more — the prison blights no more the earth where it stood — what was mortal of Morris moulders in the grave — but the results of his life remain for human happiness ; and these grounds, sad- dened while ennobled by their association with his name, remain his fit- ting monument. The air that blows about them is the common property of the poorest as of the wealthiest. Their verdure grows for the little child, ignorant of the meaning of property, and for the old man who has seen it swept away from him forever. The water that flows along them is the common heritage of all. Within them every man stands in every right the equal of his fellow-man. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 31 The main carriage road passes next over the third of these hills, formerly known as SEDGELEY PARK. This portion of the grounds, a tract of thirty-four acres, was purchased by contributions from citizens of Philadelphia, and presented to the city, in 1857, for a public park and to preserve the purity of the Schuylkill water. The acceptance of this gift by the city was followed by its im- mediate dedication to the people for their use and enjoyment. A tasteful little structure stands here, formerly a porter's lodge, for a mansion which stood here overlooking the river ; the view from this portion of the grounds gives the bridges — the nearer the Girard Avenue, and the farther the Railroad Bridge — the Solitude on the opposite shore with its fine grove, and the site of the old fishing-house of the State in Schuylkill. Here are found some trees worthy of notice — the most remarkable one the road passes on the right hand. The hill breaks off in bluffs along the margin of the river, and forms a ravine through which a little rivulet runs ; and along whose border violets, spring beauties, quaker ladies, and the May apple, the first spring offerings, are found. This hill is about eighty feet above the river — it has been selected as the site for a monument to Humboldt. The most notable object in Sedgeley is an earthwork, yet traceable, constructed during the late war as part of the system of defences for Philadelphia; it is on its highest elevation near the bridge. There is also on these grounds another relic of those days — 22 FAIRMOUNT PARK. GRANT'S COTTAGE. The small frame house which stands on these grounds was brought here, at the close of the late war, from City Point. It was there occupied by General Grant as his headquarters. The main carriage road gives a broad view of the river as it gradually descends the hill to the Girard Avenue Bridge. THE SCHUYLKILL WATER WORKS. These Works, brick buildings in the Egyptian order, stand in a ravine just beyond this bridge; they are operated by steam. Their pumping capacity is 22,947,000 gallons per diem. The storage room in the reser- voir, attached to the Works, is 9,800,000 gallons. The Connecting. Rail- way Bridge crosses here. The road unites railroad lines for all sections of the nation. Near its east abutment is THE TUNNEL. The hill, which forms the farther side of the ravine in which these works are situated, terminates in a huge rock, which rises abruptly from the water's edge to the height of sixty feet; this rock. Promontory Point, is tunnelled through for a road along the river. The tunnel is one hundred and forty feet long, forty-one feet wide, and twenty-two feet nine inches high, and is throughout solid natural rock, without any lining whatever; it is elliptical in section, with straight sides and an arched roof. It was begun October, 1870, and will be finished June, 1871. FAIRMOUNT PARK. ^^ The old Fairmount Park here terminates and the new acquisitions begin. All this ground from Fairmount, Robert Morris's old estate, was secured mainly to preserve the water in the Fairmount Dam from contamination, and the several parcels into which it had become divided have, from time to time, been the subject of prolonged struggles, in which, however, the result was gained, at whatever cost, the last holders of the old proprietary titles yielding them to the people. In this civil revolution of titles and opinions the Cope family bore a most honorable part, both in individual expenditure and wise direction of the municipal affairs. The Commissioners appropriately acknowledge, in their First Annual Report, these till then unnoted services. Before reaching the Works, the road turns to the left, and crosses Girard Avenue Bridge to the west side of the river; it then turns to the right, and passes under the Railway Bridge and along the Lansdowne drive. A road, at the same point, turns to the left at a large tree close to the bridge ; below this tree, and in former days, stood the most ancient court-house of the State in Schuylkill— a company of fishermen. Its site is marked by the remains of a group of trees which shadowed it, and by a spring whose waters these fishermen drank, and which flows up cold and limpid to-day as it did when they drank its cup of cool refresh- ment a century ago. 34 FAIRMOUNT PARK. THE STATE IN SCHUYLKILL. " Atte the leest he hath his holsom walke and mery at his ease a swete ayre of the swete savoiire of the meede; floures that makyth him hungry, and if the angler talie fysshe surely there is noo man merier than he is in his spyryte."' A tract'^ beginning at Solitude, and extending to the Sweet Brier Man- sion, was formerly called "Egglesfield." Its first owner, a contemporary with the aborigines, was one William Warner,^ an amiable and worthy man, and a member of the durable order of plain colors and rectitude. Nearly a century and a half ago (the year 1732), certain gentlemen, fol- • Cook of St. Albans. 2 The estate was of late years the property of the Borie family, of Philadelphia. 3 William Warner died Sept. 12, 1794. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 35 lowers of ''Walton," leased one acre of this tract; this they inclosed with a worm-fence. For the ground, they formally delivered on a large pewter plate to William Warner, as a yearly rental, every spring, "three sun perch ilsh," and they elevated him to the dignity of a Baron, so that he might be the more worthy to receive the service of this feudality. After securing the title to the one acre of ground, it is said they got together some of the same Indian chiefs who signed "the Treaty" with the Founder, and as they had no Elm trees, they sat them down under their Black Walnut trees. They smoked many calumets of peace with them, and entered into a similar solemn treaty for the privilege of hunting and fishing at all times forever along these shor-es. The consideration for the privilege they ladled out to these swarthy granters from a large bowl, and if the courses of their signatures along the parchment were devious ones, it would assure, what we might credit without the assurance, that no advantage was taken of them in the consideration. The preliminaries thus arranged, these fishermen, with their sturdy arms, hewed down trees enough and erected themselves a hut. Then they constituted themselves, by letters patent, a colony, by name "The Colony in Schuylkill." For the Colony they elected a Governor, to order its general affairs ; a Sheriff, to serve writs of execution on the feathered denizens of the forest and the restive tres- passers of the stream ; a Coroner, to view their inanimate forms after exe- cution and pronounce them dead and edible. Having done all this, they then sat down to fish; and what is an incredible thing to all but fisher- men, they continued to sit there ninety years; at the end of this time, one morning their spirits became sorrowful, their corks rested on the water motionless. Looking around them, they perceived that civilization had been advancing steadily towards them, while they had been uncon- 36 FAIRMOUNT PARK. sciously sitting there, and that ''an anathema"' fatal to fishermen had been levelled against them at Fairmount; a barrier through which their faithful fish could reach their hooks no longer. Then they got up, and, carrying their house with them, followed the course of the finny tribe further down the stream, and beyond the Park limits, where they and the house still remain, but where the limits of this book forbid us to follow them. When these patient fishermen sat down to fish, one hundred and forty years ago, from the old Independence Hall to the borders of this Park was one unbroken wilderness. The canoe of the Indian was still there, and the deer drank at the borders of this stream ; now, a city," with nearly a million of people, covers this whole area; the silver shad come to them no more, the rock more and more rarely, and the memory of the one trout fish they caught in this stream, a century ago, grows dimmer every hour, but they still sit quietly beside its borders, and they say to us, in their master's words, "No life is so happy and so pleasant as the life of a well-governed angler, for when the lawyer is swallowed up in business, and the statesman is preventing or contriving plots, then he possesses himself in quietness;" and it is truly said of angling, what Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did." And so, if we maybe judges, God never did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling, nor, it may be well added, worthier types of the good virtues of the angler than themselves. May they long continue to enjoy the savory shad upon the smoking board, the crisp, white catfish, and the steaming rock, "dishes of meat too good for any but anglers, or very honest men." ' The Fairmount Dam. " In 1745 there were but 2049 houses in Philadelphia; in 1871, 122,751. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 37 With the Revolution, this Colony, along with the others, rose naturally to the dignity of a State, in which condition it now remains. The last Governor of the Colony, and the first of the State in Schuylkill, was Samuel Morris, known as "Christian Samuel," a member of the Society of Friends; he was Governor for forty-six years, a member fifty- eight years. He was also a captain of our City Troop. When the Revolutionary War began, he quietly laid down his angle and took up a sword; he laid down also his broad- brim hat, because it was, like his angle, unsuitable for warfare. When the war was over, he laid down the sword with sad memories of death and suffering that had come very near to him, but with the quiet satisfaction of a duty done. He put on his hat, took up his angle again, and sat down beside this stream to fish as before. He was still sitting here when a very old man, seventy-eight years old. He died in 1812, full of years and peace. The most memorable days of this company are — The loth October, 1767. The great repast, when a turtle was served which cost, when beef was three cents a pound and Madeira thirty cents a bottle, four pounds and ten shillings, one-third the cost of their house. The r4th June, 1787. The entertainment of his Excellency General Washington, with the officers of the army and navy, in their old court-house ; its most memorable day. July 4th, 1788. When the great National Jubilee was celebrated there with great pomp and circumstance, March, 1789. When one of the members caught with a lay-out line a fifteen-inch trout. A marvellous feat for all time. Judge Peters, on this occasion, had a seat near General (President) Wharton. We want some wine, said the General to one of the 38 FAIRMOUNT PARK. younger members ; please call John. I would suggest, said the Judge, that it would be safer to bring the demi-john. September 15th, 1791. When a sturgeon leaped from the river into one of their bateaux, and was captured by these steady-nerved fishermen, confirming, if it needed confirmation, what old John Holmes wrote about this fish (1689) : — " The sturgeon briskly through the waters bounce, And now and then they into boats do flounce." 1793. During a terrible fever, when there was fed from the fish-house table a multi- tude of persons, rich and poor, with fresh fish every morning. 1825. When Lafayette completed the tour of all the States of the Union, as he said, by a visit to this State, and feelingly alluded to the time wlien he crossed this river in the dark days of the Revolution. i860. When the Governor of Pennsylvania (A. G. Curtin, now Minister at St. Petersburg) was received by the Governor of this ancient State in Schuylkill,' at the court-house, with such mutual formalities as befitted the representatives of these sove- reignties ; for no other of our States is more ancient nor has been so always honest, wise, and temperate in its counsels as the State in Schuylkill. May I, 1832. The day of their centenary, a great festive occasion, made beautiful with tributes of flowers gathered on the banks of this river, and song and honor to the dead of the Republic, and their own; and good Isaac Walton, of blessed memory. Among their toasts that day he was not forgotten, as never are forgotten the fathers of the Revolution. On the occasion of the reception of Lafayette, Judge Peters was present, and sang with the happiest effect, to the great delight of his old Revolutionary companion. Among the toasts that day were those which are always annually given : The Memory of their Governor, Morris ; The Army ; The Navy ; Our Sister States ; The State in Schuylkill ; Our Country ; and these : — National Gratitude — The brightest jewel in a nation's diadem. ' The present location of the house is near Gray's Ferry. It is there the first botanic garden in America was laid out and planted by John Bartram, the pioneer botanist of this country. Near there also is the Woodlands, formerly the seat of the Hamilton family, the earliest and then the best specimen of landscape-gardening in this country. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 39 Our Distinguished Guest and the Nations — The name of Lafayette is en- graven on every heart ; a worthy associate of his great Military Father. The Heroes of the Revolution — Living or dead, their glory is imperishable. The Memory of our Father — Washington. The Solitude is a short distance beyond the site of the fishing-house, and is bordered by a wood. ^s.'--\\'«* THE SOLITUDE. . The Villa, as its first owner described it, "near Philadelphia, built by me while I resided in America," was erected in 1785 by John Penn — the poet, a grandson of the Founder. It remained in the Penn family until its purchase by the Park Commissioners. The house, except from age, remains quite as the builder left it, and is a pleasant poet's home. It 40 FAIRMOUNT PARK. has a small drawing-room; a room adjoining, which served both for a hall and sitting-room ; a chamber with an alcove, for his hours of rest ; a library, where at once he was his author and auditor; and deep and roomy cellars for his wine. This fortunate poet's old bookcases, set in the wall, give the same quiet to the room they did the days when he" lived there. His sulmy sitting-room is quite the same. The secret door by which he shut himself from visits of intrusive friends, closes as quietly to as it did so many years ago. The life of the builder of this mansion is in strong contrast with the severe and broad virtues of William Penn and the other great historic characters who have made these grounds memorable. John Penn, the poet, loved solitude, but he made this place an enviable solitude; and though he loved his own poems and read them all day long, and though they had no other reader, yet they show what guests assembled in his solitude. Dante was there ; Chaucer, "the well of English undefiled;" Petrarch and Tasso ; and Anacreon. Here he sat dreaming through the summer days, the leisure days of a life which all was leisure. In one of the volumes of his poems, printed in London in 1801, he gives a view of this villa, of which the above is a fac-simile, and calls it "The Solitude." The white dove he has had the artist picture flying close along the lawn had been a favorite bird, and he there deplores, with Anacreon' s pleasant thoughts and in these old- time words and verse, its death: — " Thine, oft I said (nor hoped' so near thy end), Are all things round, 2 the grove, and cloudless skyj While cheers the enlivening ray, sport and enjoy ; Thine are yon oaks that o'er the stream impend, And rocks that, as I stray with musing eye. Or wonder^ from the shed,* can never cloy." 1 Hope, expect. 2 Round, around. " Wonder, admire. * Shed, door. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 41 It is said he planted every tree about this house with his own hands; this there is reason to believe, and for the many trees which yet remain, and for that picture of the dove flying across the lawn, we keep his memory. GRANVILLE JOHN PENN. • Granville John Penn, the great-grandson of the Founder, the last private owner of Solitude, and the last of the Founder's name, visited this country in 1851. His father in his time one of the most learned lay- men of England, and himself a kindly old English gentleman, he was the recipient, from our old-time citizens and from the authorities, of suitable attentions. In aj:knowledgment of these attentions, he gave a collation at "The Solitude." It is interesting to remember that this house was the last property here of a family which was once the owner of the broad State of Pennsylvania ; the descendants of a wise and good man, whose title, unlike so many others in this and other countries, was founded "in deeds of peace," kept with "unbroken faith." Mr. Penn wished that the city should become its owner, and keep it for the Founder's name. He did not live to see this pious wish fulfilled, which since his death, to our advantage, has been done. The sale of this property to the city, and the release by himself in 1852 of the render of a red rose at Christ- mas from the good people of Easton, closes the long account of that great Founder's name with ourselves ; its own account on earth now also closed forever. Granville John Penn died at Stoke Poges, England, March 29, 1867. He was the last (save one since deceased) of that line. 42 FAIRMOUNT PARK. Adjoining the grounds of ''the Solitude" are the West Philadelphia Water Works. WEST PHILADELPHIA WATER WORKS. These Works are not now in operation. The stand-pipe is a very prominent object in the Park. It is surrounded by a circular stairway from its base to its summit. It is one hundred and thirty feet high, and eight feet in diameter. Return from these Works to the main carriage drive, at the Lansdowne entrance;* the road here passes under the Railway Bridge, first rises and then descends, and gives fine views of the river. At the lowest point of its descent it passes under a bridge, rises again, and so reaches ' From July i to Nov. i, 1869, a record of visitors, kept at this point, shows pedestrians, 86,250; equestrians, 5120; vehicles, 55,396; an aggregate of 257,558 persons passing into the Park by this entrance. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 43 THE CHILDREN'S PLAY-GROUNDS. These grounds, called Sweet Brier, are fitted up with flying-horses and swings for children, and especially set apart for them. There are many fine forest-trees here, giving an agreeable shade, and it is a great resort for the little ones on Saturday afternoons. The grounds command a fine view of the river and of other portions of the Park. The mansion which stands here was the residence for many years of SAMUEL BRECK. A golden link of the clays of the Revolution and our own times. Mr. Breck was born in Boston, in 177 1, He was educated near Tou- louse, in Languedoc, in the Royal and Military School of Sorenze. His 44 FAIRMOUNT PARK, instructors were Benedictine monks. He remained at this school from his eleventh until his sixteenth year. His companions were the Prince de Carignan, ancestor of the King of Sardinia, several Italian and Spanish noblemen, Dessaix, and others, whose lives passed away into obscurity or ended in the violence of revolutions. His own life was kept for gentler and better uses. After a sojourn in his native place, he again visited Europe in the dark dawn of the French Revolution. He saw the King, Queen, and the Dauphin, the prisoners of the populace, about to expiate their predeces- sors' crimes. He saw the old teachers and pupils he loved driven from their ancient seat of learning, some to perish in the September massacres, some themselves to urge on the tide of crime. These scenes made the quiet and calm progress of our Republic in- tensely dear to him. He lived at Sweet Brier thirty-eight years. In the leisure hours of his business he cultivated here the sciences, the arts of music and design, and was foremost in every good work.^ "Farmer Breck," as his good friend and neighbor. Judge Peters, always called him, had here a model place; and while the Judge theo- rized, and saw the State rise through his theories to wealth, Farmer Breck, in their practical application, made his place a marvellous example of their value. He gave a due proportion of his life to public affairs. He served four years in the State Senate, where he laid the foundation of our system of internal improvements, and further made his name mem- orable by his bill for the final emancipation of the slaves in Pennsylvania. ' He was accomplished in all the graces of his time, and thoroughly read in its litera- ture. In his life he never passed an idle hour, nor uttered an uncourteous word. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 45 He served afterwards in the National Legislature (the i8th Congress), among the most memorable men our nation ever possessed, and in hal- cyon days of the Republic. He again served in the State Senate, and there drew the bill for the establishment of the Common School System of Pennsylvania. His services, from that time, were in positions of the very highest tri'st and importance in Philadelphia, and continuous to the year of his death. Although a business man, Mr. Breck knew what the legitimate claims of business were, by what means money should be made, how much time should be given to its acquisition, and to what uses it should be applied. At the outset of his life, rather than live where illegitimate gain was sanctioned by common consent, he deliberately sacrificed an easy, safe, and rapid road to wealth which lay before him, and began with a small capital to make slower gains through longer* years. He was a gentleman of the old school, and he preserved its courtesies on the street, in the counting-room, at the social board, with child and man, servant and dignitary of the State, the same. His salutations were formal, yet under them a gentle kindliness shone which lifted up the hearts of all to him in affection and reverence. He was true to his party predilections, but with this preference ran evenly an earnest love for the whole country. He was careful in all formal religious observances, but within he kept burning brightly that inner light, without which all religious observances are vain. His life covered' the most momentous periods of our country's history. He welcomed Lincoln, the great representative of freedom of our gene- ration, to this city in 1861, where he had also stood in the august pres- 1 Born July 17, 1771. Died August 22, 1862, aged 91 years and 46 days. 46 FAIRMOUNT PARK. ence of Washington. He had been held up a child in his nurse's arms to witness the smoke and flame of Bunker Hill, and he was yet living when Sumter's smouldering ruin lit the flames of civil war. Through all these long years he was changeless in his love and devotion to our institutions. His last words were (uttered among those dark days of civil war) — what of — my country. There is something peculiarly appropriate in the selection of Sweet Brier as the children's play-ground, not only because he first gave legal direction to our common school system, but was a dear friend to little children. He was a constant visitor to the parish school of his church (the Episcopal), took the most lively interest in its progress, and by the sprightliness and benignity of his manner completely won the hearts of all the pupils. They looked forward to the day of his coming as to a holiday. He was also one of the founders, for many years president, and to the last year of his life a visitor of the Institution for the Blind, and by these most afflicted of God's children best beloved. His step was recognized by them among all the others as he entered their hall. The main carriage road, after leaving this mansion, passes through a grove of trees, some among them very venerable old forest monarchs, oaks and chestnuts; then, by easy grades, it winds along the open grounds, and so reaches a rustic bridge which crosses the river road. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 47 THE VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE. The view from this bridge is certainly the best along all the middle ground of the west bank. A little below, and quite near it, stands the worn-out trunk of a large tree, solidly engirt with a new growth, a second life from itself, preserving its old form and existence. From this tree the Lansdowne ravine descends to the river; a fair landscape holds the eye with reliefs and harmonies of hill and lawn and woodland, and the imagination with historic suggestions of the resi- dences of bygone days. Far up the river, set boldly against the sky, stand the dark hemlocks of the good old Belmont Mansion, endeared by the memory of Lafayette, Steuben, and Washington; and yet further 48 FAIRxMOUNT PARK. beyond and higher, Chamouni, the type of our broader and further future : all first the abode of savage life, a wilderness; then the estate of a family and the dominion of a king; then a battle-ground for freedom; and last, the property of the people, for the happiness and good of all. The road, crossing the bridge,^ passes first, on the right hand, a fine old relic of the forest, standing on a slight elevation alone ; opposite this old tree is a group of young trees recently set there f beyond them, the road in broad curves passes along the Lansdowne Ravine, and around the head of this ravine ; keeping close along its border, it reaches a tall branchless dead pine ; near this trunk another pine of grand proportions, and beyond it a friendly group of six more, which, like hospitable hosts, invite rest : this point is the Lansdowne Concourse. ' A road diverges from this road immediately after it passes over the bridge, and passes under the bridge; this is the river road elsewhere described. * Brought from the Centre Square, January, 187 1. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 49 LANSDOWNE CONCOURSE. This point is very attractive. On one side rest the grateful shadows of the Lansdowne Valley, to the foot of which, from these pines, a minia- ture Alpine zigzag descends ; and on the other, a broad open ground, bordered by the Belmont Valley, commands a view of the river and the opposite shores. A companion group of pines, the survivors of twelve, stand a little further on. At equal distances from the groups of pines a mansion formerly stood, built by John Penn, the Governor. 5 50 FAIRMOUNT PARK. LANSDOWNE MANSION. The noble estate of Lansdowne contained two hundred acres, extend- ing from Sweet Brier to Behnont and George's Hill.^ The mansion was built before the Revolution. It was a grand structure for those times. A broad carriage drive led to it from an entrance beyond the Belmont Road, where formerly stood a large gateway. It had extensive conser- vatories, and the grounds were adorned with vases, fountains, and box cut in the formal style of the period. A private passage led from the mansion to the river. It was in later times the residence of Joseph ' During the occupancy of Philadelphia in the winter of 1777, the British had an en- campment on these grounds. FAIRMOUNT PARK. Bonaparte, ex-King of Spain. ^ Its last owner, prior to its purchase by the city, was the late Lord Ashburton. The mansion had been much neglected, although still in good preservation until a recent period. It was accidentally destroyed by boys with fireworks, celebrating the fourth of July, 1854. JOHN PENN. ' ' The Honorable John Penn, ' ' • called ' ' the American, ' ' was Lieutenant- Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania and Counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex on Delaware from 1763 to 1771 and from 1774 to 1776. He was a not unworthy representative of " the Founder;" his first act, followed by many like actions, was to carry out 'Cousin of John Penn, of Solitude; born in Philadelphia, and thence derived the designation. 52 FAIRMOUNT PARK. that great man's intentions to the Indians who remained in the Province, and to protect them from outrage and violence. But his good record does not end there ; during the whole term of his office, a prolonged one, he gave a wise and serious attention to the public affairs, and supported the honor and dignity of his family and of the Province. He maintained royal state on these grounds, and sumptuous surroundings, but also a clear record of wise government. His times were troublous ones; he was the last representative of the Founder who had authority here, and the last representative of kingly power in Pennsylvania. He bore up bravely against the coming violence of the storm of the Revolution, but, like some stately and unyielding tree, broke down before it. The bold free airs which swept about our land those days made sad havoc among the royal oaks transplanted to this uncongenial soil.' ' He retained throughout that season of trial the good-will of the worthy of all parties. After the dissolution of the government, though politically restrained, he was treated with the respect due to his exalted station and private worth. His successor was the sterling fisherman and patriot, Thomas Wharton. He was called from the old court-house, at the Baron Warner's, to preside over Pennsylvania, vice the fallen governor, in 1776. John Penn resided in this mansion after the war; was visited by Washington in 1787. He died in Bucks County in this State, February 9, 1795, at the age of sixty-seven. His remains were taken back to England. "The Penn estate," says the late Judge Conrad, "was the largest one ever sequestered in civil war; it was estimated at ^10,000,000 sterling. The heirs received as a compen- sation from the British Government an annuity of ;if4000; and the State of Pennsylvania, in remembrance of the founder, awarded them ;^i30,ooo." Their private estates were not divested, but have been held and inherited by succeeding members of the family down to our own day. "Solitude," as stated before, was purchased from them by the city. The governor, by his will, dated January 2, 1795, devised Lansdowne to his wife, Mrs. Anne Penn, and by subsequent conveyances through her title it also became the property of the city. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 53 With the remaining portions of this Park begins a new era in its pro- gress; they were acquired under the direction of the present Commission and by authority of the City and the Commonwealth. From acquisitions of ground by thirty, forty, or even one hundred and forty, the work ad- vanced to three thousand acres; but yet always with the same objects with which the prior purchases were made and gifts of these estates accepted by the city — "the heaUh and enjoyment of the people of Phila- delphia and the preservation of the purity of its water supply. ' ' This little book is not the place to do justice to the liberal conception of this act, less to the labors of the members of this Commission and their satisfactory results. It is their good fortune to be chosen guardians for the people of a trust of inestimable value, the preservation of old historic landmarks fast passing away, and of nature as rapidly being destroyed ; the develop- ing also of the Park idea into one of such colossal proportions as to place Philadelphia in the van of all the cities of Europe and America. The main carriage road from the Concourse passes first on the right hand the survivors of the Twelve Pines ; immediately beyond these the river opens like the broad and placid bosom of a lake, with the city's spires, Fairmount, and the bridges for its boundaries. A little further, on the left hand, is the severed trunk of a once huge chestnut, from which have sprung a bower of sixteen young trees; yet a little further, three large trees which stand like sentinels. Beyond these the road passes, on the right hand, a grove of oaks^ and cedars, under whose shadows Bel- ' The Michaux grove, ultimately to contain a specimen of every oak which will grow in this climate. Oaks embracing sixteen species have been planted there during the past year. 5* 54 FAIRMOUNT PARK. mont Valley descends to the river, and on the left a fine piece of Eng- lish lawn marked by a very symmetrical solitary tree. A by-road leads through the grove to the Belmont Mansion. The main carriage road passes by the head of the valley, crosses the Belmont Avenue, ascends an easy grade, leaves on the right hand the Belmont Reservoir, and so rises to m- GEORGE'S HILL. As IN THE LONG PAST, SO IN ALL THE FUTURE THIS TRACT OF LAND SHALL BEAR THE NAME OF "George's Hill," and bearing it, shall BE a perpetual MEMORIAL OF THE HONORED grantors' NAME. Among the first and the most grateful of all the acquisitions by the Commissioners was this fine tract of ground. Soon after they began their labors' they received a letter from Jesse George, an aged and estimable member of the Society of Friends, who with his sister^ were then its joint owners. In the letter Jesse George stated that this property had been the unin- terrupted home of his ancestors for many generations, and had retained very much the appearance it bore from the first settlement of the country. That, with a view of preserving it to their memory in the same rural condition in which they occupied it, he had declined all offers to sell; but that considering the benefits of a public Park, and that a disposition of the property by him for that purpose would carry out his wishes for its ' See First Annual Report of Commission. 2 Since deceased. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 55 preservation, he offered it to his fellow-citizens as a contribution to their pleasure-ground. Rebecca George joined with him in the same offer. The Commissioners accepted this generous gift, reserving for these estimable persons, at their request, the undisturbed enjoyment during their lives of the water of a little brook which runs along the foot of the hill. The tract comprises eighty-three acres. An oval concourse two hun- dred feet in diameter crowns its summit, which is two hundred and ten feet above the river. The Commissioners have erected there a commodious and tasteful music-stand and surrounded it by beds of flowers. A flag floats from the hill, visible from the principal parts of the Park. Under it a fountain of cold spring-water, artificially forced up from "the brook," constantly flows. The view from this concourse is a very commanding one. The background is shut in by a wood; but looking southward and westward, the hill descends gradually and widens to a broad open reach of green- sward with trees — in clumps, separate, and in pieces of woodland — the remains of the primeval forests. Farther on, in the middle-ground of this fair landscape, ribboned through with floating lines of vapor from passing trains, flows the clear, broad Schuylkill — spanned with its bridges, dotted with pleasure steamers and the gay pennons of the navy barges. Beyond are wooded slopes and green open spaces; from them the eye wanders over the city's long-extending streets, spires, and domes, amid which rise in pure whiteness the pillars of the College. Farther yet, beyond these spires, these domes, these pillars, the eye defines the city's boundaries and the horizon's verge, and along this line, in a clear atmo- sphere, the sails of vessels on the river Delaware. On fine afternoons this Hill is the grand centre for carriages ; the whole summit is crowned with equestrians and pedestrians, carriages, rich dresses 56 FAIRMOUNT PARK. and gay liveries. The animation of the scene, heightened by inspiriting strains of music, by the sense of health and enjoyment which breathes about the place, and, most of all, by its grateful memory, renders it to visitors one of the most attractive portions of the Park. THE BELMONT RESERVOIR adjoins George's Hill. It is supplied from the Belmont Works, on tlie margin of the river below. Its capacity is 35,800,000 gallons. The water-level, when full, is two hundred and twelve feet above the city datum. The arrangement by which the water passes from the main pipe into the basin is quite novel, and repays the short walk over from the Hill. There is also a very fine view from its east side of the city, and surrounding Park grounds on both sides of the river. From George's Hill, the main carriage road leaves the reservoir on the right, and passes over a high plateau to Belmont. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 57 BELMONT. On this place,' twenty-five years ago, was still standing what Downing describes as the grandest avenue of hemlocks in America. These trees were centenarians in the perfection of their growth, ninety feet high, some draped with immense masses of English ivy. This long and stately avenue extended from the mansion to a road beyond the Belmont Avenue, and was there terminated by an obelisk. Many of these hemlocks yet remain. The garden walks were finished with box and privet, the beds set with rare shrubs and flowers, and the grounds adorned with vases and statues. The mansion, which is described by Chastellux (1780) as "a ' The grounds at their highest elevation, on this estate, are two hundred and forty-three feet above tide-water. 58 FAIRMOUNT PARK. tasty little box, in the most charming spot nature could embellish," remains with little alteration, and is a very excellent specimen of the houses of that early period. Its principal characteristics are a broad hall and small dormitories, small window-glass and heavy sashes, highly ornamented and high wooden mantel-pieces, a comfortable dining-room, and open fireplaces. One of these in the hall is still used; the panel over it formerly held a landscape ; the coat of arms of the family remains perfect on the ceiling. Other ornamental devices about the mansion are recognizable as belonging to that early period. The roof has been raised ; the third story and piazza are modern. A library, which adjoined the main house, has also been removed since the Judge's time. The date of the erection of the main out-building is fixed by a monogram, T. W. P. 1745, cut on a slab set in the wall. There was a chestnut-tree near this mansion, planted by Washington, known as the Washington tree,* and an object of great interest in former times. There is still stand- ing there a white walnut, which was planted by Lafayette, on his visit here as the nation's guest, in 1824. 1 Washington and Judge Peters proposed walking one afternoon. When a few steps from the back hall-door of the mansion, the Judge handed the General a large chestnut (a Spanish nut). Washington suggested planting it; thereupon the Judge, who carried a cane (Washington never carried a cane), made a hole with it in the ground, Washington dropped the nut, the Judge earthed it over. The shoot from it was watched and tended with care ; it grew to be a large tree, and bore nuts of extraordinary size. This tree stood on the right hand, a few steps outside the hall-door. The two trees near the dining- room are its lineal descendants. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 59 The view from the hall-door of the mansion is worth a journey across the continent — it is one uninterrupted and slowly descending vista to the river, greensward, woodland and water, sunlight and shadow, holding and never wearying the gaze. It is a very general resort during the spring and summer months, the rendezvous of a gay throng of carriages, and visitors by cars and boat. It is attractive at all seasons; spring gives it an exquisite freshness and beauty; the changing leaves of autumn display there a season which belongs, in its perfection, only to our country; and winter, when a heavy snow has fallen, or a sleeting night been succeeded by a clear, bright morning, discloses a scene fairy-like and indescribable; but early summer mornings and afternoons it is the most enjoyable. What 6o FAIRMOUNT PARK. Charles the Emperor said of the city of Florence, may well be said here, "It is too pleasant to be looked upon, but only on holidays." A singular scene was witnessed by the visitors to these grounds last summer (1870). Near the mansion was found sitting a group of savages, twelve in number, in their native costumes. They smoked thdr calumets with satisfaction, and looked on the river and the hills, the old hunting-grounds of their forefathers, probably with regret, if regrets be possible for their nature. They were from Dacotah — one was Red Wing — they were braves and warriors, and had been to see the Great Father at Washington, and were on their journey back to the land of the setting sun. JUDGE RICHARD PETERS. " I, who was an humble laborer in planting the vineyard, rejoice in having lived to see the exuberant vintage it has produced." — Judge Peters' s Letter to A. Garden, 182 1. Richard Peters, the beloved friend of Washington, was born m this mansion, and died here August 22, 1828, at the age of eighty-four. He was the son of William Peters, and the nephew of Richard Peters, Secre- tary of the Land Office under the Penns. The father and son in the Revolution severed in their opinions. The father adhered to the crown, returned to and died in England. Judge Peters at the outset ignored social, family, and business relations, assumed and adhered to the cause of the colonies. He was born in the den of the British lion, and in a good-humored manner bearded him there. Judge Peters filled the office of Secretary of the Board of War during the Revolution ; was a Representative in Congress, and had, at the time of his death, sat as a Judge of the United States District Court thirty-nine years. He was not alone distinguished as a patriot, a legislator, and a jurist, but in the department of agriculture he was the pioneer in those improve- ments which restored the wasting farm lands of this State. He sang the FAIRMOUNT PARK. 6 1 best song,^ grave or gay, was the most noted wit of his times, and was also the most genial and hospitable of men, ' This fragment of a song in his clear handwriting lies before me ; it was written at a meeting of the St. George's Society, September 28, 1774: — When Britain first, by Heaven's command, Arose from out the azure main. This was the charter of the land. And guardian angels sang this strain ; Rule, Britannia, rule the waves, Britons never will be slaves. Let us, your sons, by freedom warmed. Your own example keep in view ; 'Gainst tyranny be ever armed, Tho' we our tyrants find — in you. Rule, Britannia, rule the waves. But never make your children slaves. With justice and with wisdom reign. We then with thee will firmly join To make thee mistress of the main, And all the shore it circles thine. Rule, Britannia, rule the waves, We 're subjects still, but not your slaves. A portion of the Judge's song of the Treaty Tree may be also appropriately quoted here : — Whilst the natives our forests in freedom shall roam, Thy remembrance they '11 cherish through ages to come. Tho' sorrows their bosoms should oft overwhelm. With delight they '11 reflect on good Ones' s Elm. For that patron of justice and peace there displayed His most welcome good tidings, beneath its fair shade. 62 FAIRMOUNT PARK. And furnished examples to all future times, That Justice and Peace may inhabit all climes. The Oak may be fam'd for its uses in war. Or wafting wealth's idols to regions afar ; But the Elm bears no part in such objects as these, Its employment is solely in fabrics of peace. The Olive abounds where stern despots bear rule, And their slaves pluck its products in Poverty's school ; But the Elm delights most in the mountains and dells, Where Man is ne'er shackled, and Liberty dwells. Tho' time has devoted our tree to decay. The sage lessons it witness'd survive to our day, May our trustworthy statesmen, when called to the helm. Ne'er forget the wise Treaty held under our Ebn. Many anecdotes of Judge Peters are preserved in the manuscript of his biographer. They were a constant glimmer on the full deep flow of his earnest, enduring life. On the occasion of a brewer's death, when a dull man expressed surprise to the Judge because the brewer seemed to have been in good health : True, he was, said the Judge, a stottt man. What could then have carried him off? said the dull questioner. Something aled him, and the beer carried him off, said the Judge. Ah ! said the questioner: I did not know he drank. Nor did I, either, said the Judge, slowly shaking-his head and walk- ing away. When the Judge's health began to fail, a report of his death got into circulation and produced general sorrow. He was riding, and was met by a stranger, who told him the sad news. Well, said the Judge to the astonished man, I, for one, am very glad to hear it. I have lived very long, but I never thought I 'd live long enough to hear that that man was dead. In his 76th year, dining with the Cincinnati Society, he saw that, of the 300 original members, but 40 remained. I am the oldest survivor, he said, cheerfully, and as this is a military association which places the senior officer in the rear of the procession, I shall take my place there, and so see you all out, and reach the dismal goal last. Seeing Smith, who had become entirely bald, he said : Smith, you must be a very happy man. Why, said Smith, innocently. Because, said he, Smith, there's not a hair between your head and heaven. FAIRMOUNT PARK. (>^ Among the guests of Judge Peters assembled in this mansion were the Chevalier de la Luzerne, the French Minister, whose house was at the Falls, Franklin, "Christian Samuel," Rittenhouse the astronomer, Bartram, President Wharton, and distinguished men of science from Europe. Lafayette, while in Philadelphia, on his return to this country as the nation's guest in 1824, was constantly with the Judge, and passed much of his time at this house. The Baron de Steuben,^ Inspector- General during the Revolution, was on relations of much intimacy with the Judge, and, whenever he was in Philadelphia, visited his house. Here also Talleyrand and Louis Philippe were received. Robert Morris, the Count de Survilliers, John Penn the governor, Alexander J. Dallas the advocate, whose house was near the Falls, John Adams, and, before all these, the author of the great Declaration,^ were his neighbors. * During Washington's administration, Thomas Jefferson lived below the Park limits at Gray's Ferry. He continued to reside there until he retired from public life in De- cember, 1793, and these fair shores witnessed an interview in those days of our transi- tion from monarchical ideas following the close of the Revolution, which shows the influ- ence Washington held even over this great man. Jefferson, then Secretary of State, had finally determined to resign his office; nor was it credited, so decided were the positions he had taken, that his determination was alterable. Washington, unbending from the place of his superior rank, visited him, and in a long interview (August 6th, 1793) beside these waters besought him to remain in the discharge of his office. Jefferson had then written to his life-long friend and companion Madison (June 9th, 1793), in a spirit of utter weariness of public affairs. " The motion of my blood," he said in this letter, " no longer keeps time with the turmoil of the world, my happiness lies in the lap and love of my family, in my books and in the society of my neighbors, in an interest and affection in every bud that opens and breath that blows around me. I am worn down with fruitless labor." To Washington he yielded. It is a pleasant recollection that this great instructor of his age, who so loved also the passing air and opening flower, had for that then worn- down spirit the relief of these fair scenes of nature, and that the scenes themselves are thus associated with his name and widening influence over our race. 64 FAIRMOUNT PARK. Washington's memory is the most sacred legacy of these fair grounds; the biographer of Judge Peters (the late Samuel Breck) writes: " Whenever a morning of leisure permitted that great man to drive to Belmont, it was his constant habit to do so ; in its beautiful gardens, beneath the shadows of the lofty hemlocks, he would sequester himself from the world, the cares and torments of business, and enjoy a recrea- tive and unceremonious intercourse with the Judge." On occasions of ceremony, however, at receptions and entertainments, Washington maintained surroundings of state in keeping with his time and military habitudes, although incongruous with these later days. The old shell of the royal era remained long after the soul and heart of the thing were gone. In the details of his household, also, he was very stately, and among all the equipages which rolled up to the door of Judge Peters' s mansion, his was the most decisive in its appointments. His coach, which is still in good preservation, was of a cream color, drawn by six horses of the old dominion stock. His motto was engraved on the har- ness plates ; his crest on the panels ; his postilions wore bright tasselled caps, and his coachman maintained a dignity and style in perfect keeping with the whole. He rode here also on the white charger which bore him in the Revo- lution, sometimes with attendants, sometimes alone. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 65 Among the purposes entertained by the Commissieners, that to preserve and restore the mansions on these grounds is most approvable. All that helps to realize to us the days and actors of the Revolution is of much importance to our future. The narrow glass windows of this mansion are more precious to patriotic eyes than the broad plates of our era. The small rooms, with their low ceilings, and their open fireplaces, contending with wintry draughts, are more grateful to patriotic hearts than any lofty chambers of our present residences — for their occupants were the foremost men of our race, and their great work was for all time. We have made marvellous advances in all appliances for material grandeur and convenience. We have substituted for their stately equi- pages moving palaces on the water and on the land as much grander and more costly, as those were than the lumbering wains of the laborers of their times. We have overlaid by railroads, and broken down by battles, the narrow lines of the thirteen old sovereignties, extended their area 6* 66 FAIRMOUNT PARK. across the continent, and unified them to a nation. We have advanced higher the standard of freedom, until no slave toils on our soil. But we have given no better type of the uses of wealth, than the Financier of the Colonies. We have reached no farther in our theories of government than the Author of the Declaration. And among all our millions, and all the world's millions, there has never been reproduced a man in the like- ness of the Leader of the Armies of the Revolution. From Belmont the main carriage road passes over grounds which em- brace unquestionably the most noble scenery in the Park. Leaving the Belmont Mansion, a thick wood, which borders on the Belmont Glen, extends for a short distance and shuts out the view to the eastward. Passing this, the whole open country at once bursts on the sight, broad and grand. The College comes again into view, looming against the sky, and the river lightens up the landscape with its mirror-like sur- face. Through this noble landscape you reach Chamouni. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 67 1- VMkR ^.^sj,v „^n^^~A;s^^ ^M * ^ CHAMOUNI. This portion of the Park,^ unlike the rest, has no legendary or historic associations; but it requires none — as a natural throne, it asserts the authority of its position. In one field of view, it embraces the most distant sections of the city, widely separated villages, and still more widely separated ranges of country. ' Originally, and quite as appropriately, named Mount Prospect. 68 FAIRMOUNT PARK. The Schuylkill lies under its mountain-like side, here a lake and there a winding river. The Park, in its whole extent to Fairmount, spreads map-like beneath it. The waters of the far Delaware show from it, mile after mile, on their long journey to the sea. Beyond, pine forests stretch away in the dim distance, and hang a dark fringe along the horizon. From the mansion* extends a grand panorama; for its background, rocky ranges, deep glens, and dark woodlands, villages, and farm-lands; and for its foreground, all the broad acres of this pleasure-ground, the spires and domes of the second city of the continent, and the great rivers which are its wealth and life-giving boundaries. But Chamouni has yet more to offer than this panorama; as if to leave nothing wanting in which it should challenge supremacy, on its summit, the one beside the other, stand three forest-trees, larger and more im- pressive than any others through the whole Park limits; one of these trees is a Black Walnut, another a Chestnut, the third a Tulip Poplar. These giant old trees, the relics and remembrancers of "the times which tried men's souls," stand there, nature's noblemen, granting favors and asking none. They have suggested the famous meeting of the three allied sovereigns in Hyde Park.^ But may they not better suggest the enduring compan- ionship of three other and nobler sovereigns — the Black Walnut, with its rich solid wood, Morris; the Chestnut, with its broad, liberal branches, Jefferson ; the Tulip Poplar, the noblest of all the forest-trees of America, Washington — the purse, the charter, and the sword of the Revolution; men who loved these grounds, strong men who stood together, in their • Built in 1802 by George Plumstead, a merchant of Pliiladelphia engaged in the India trade. * After Napoleon's fall. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 69 day and generation, as these trees stand, changeless and mighty, in sun- shine and in storm. "... The great of earth, Great not by kingly birth, Great in their well proved worth — Firm hearts, and true." THE EAST BANK. This section of the Park will be opened to the public this summer. A proposed road will make it accessible from Fairmount by a con- tinuation of the present river road on the east bank, which will turn to the right after passing through the tunnel. The section is a series of estates — among others, Fountain Green, Mount Pleasant, Rockland, Belleville, Ormiston, Edgeley, Woodford, and the Strawberry Mansion ; they lie in successive tracts along the river, begin- ning below the Columbia Bridge and terminating at Laurel Hill. Its principal advantages over the west bank are more commanding views of the river and a more absolutely natural condition. The thickets remain, and a greater wealth of flowers in the woods and valleys. There is not an inch of frightful smoothness in the whole distance along the river bluff from the present entrance at Columbia Bridge to the Cemeteries. Among the many attractions of this section of the Park there are three : the first, a grand ravine ; the second, the splendid trees on the Rockland estate ; and the third, a broad view of the river, which, once seen, will never be forgotten by any true lover of nature ; nor should such a one fail to find the young tree which stands, like a tower solidly set on a rock, in that 70 FAIRMOUNT PARK. ravine, or the gnarled chestnut, near Laurel Hill. This section' contains two mansions of historic importance. The Woodford Mansion, situated on the Ridge Avenue, was built by William Coleman,^ the friend of Franklin. It was afterwards the residence of Daniel Franks, a gentle- man with large business connections in Philadelphia and New York during and after the Revolution. His son, Major Franks, was aid-de- camp to Arnold before his defection, but was himself a true patriot. His daughter. Miss Franks,^ was celebrated for her wit and beauty in the days of the republican court. It was also afterwards the residence of William Lewis, one of the most distinguished among the advocates of Philadelphia. The other of these mansions overlooks the river near the Columbia Bridge. ' The lake reservoir to be located in this section will be one hundred and six acres in extent, with ninety acres of water surface, and will hold 750,000,000 gallons. ' Erected 1742. ' Miss Franks deserves to be remembered for her determined defences of her sister belles. In one of her letters she even says : '• The ladies of Philadelphia have more cleverness in a turn of the eye, than, the New York ladies in their whole composition." / FAIRMOUNT PARK. 71 MOUNT PLEASANT. The stately mansion on this estate was built by John Macpherson, who was its owner from 1761 to 1779. William Macpherson, his son, was born in Philadelphia in 1756. He was at thirteen a cadet in the British army. While adjutant of the i6th Regiment in Florida, he tendered his resignation. On his return to New York, he obtained permission from Sir Henry Clinton to resign, declaring he would never serve against his countrymen. He joined the Continental army on the Hudson in 1779; was made a major by brevet, and stood high in the confidence of Wash- ington, He is famous as the organizer and commander of Macpherson's blues in the insurrection of 1794, and served under General Mifflin. The mansion passed from John Macpherson to Benedict Arnold 7 2 FAIRMOUNT PARK. (March, 1779), and through him, immediately afterwards, to trustees, as a marriage settlement for Mrs. Arnold, reserving to himself a life-estate. His defection took place the following year. It was followed by the for- feiture of his life-interest. The mansion then became the residence of General Von Steuben, known with us as the Baron Steuben. Of late years it has been the scene of many of those grand celebrations which distinguish the German Fatherland. Baron Steuben, whose residence here associates his name with this mansion, was a life-long soldier. As a boy, witnessing the Siege of Prague ; as a youth,.serving through the Seven Years' War, a member of the personal staff of Frederick the 'Great. He came here a veteran from his strict .school, and encouraged by that great King's sympathies with the cause of the Colonies. It is his enduring remembrance that he created the discipline of the American Army, and his alone. Unambitious of fame, he retired after the close of the war, and in the far wilderness, near Trenton Palls, lived and died. At his own request, he was buried there; desiring only that he should be wrapped in his military cloak, and that the then unbroken silence- of his burial-place should so remain. His name very honorably associates itself, on these grounds, with the many better remembered, but yet no more deserving of remembrance than this veteran disciplinarian. Through him the irregular bands of the Colonies became the armies of the Revolution. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 73 THE RAVINES. The ravines in the Park on the west side of the river are consecutively named the "Sweet Brier," the *' Lansdowne," and the "Belmont" ravines, and Belmont Glen. In these ravines, nature has been left to her own better hands. There are no close-shaven, sloping mounds of greensward, no formal groups of flowers, nor any exotic set out orderly to be the unnatural companion of the sturdy survivors of the old forest. The result is, that these ravines 74 FAIRMOUNT PARK. are the most attractive places in the Park to real earnest lovers of nature. " Unkempt and wild, she reigns alone." They may be visited separately by leaving the carriage and joining it at the opposite side of the ravine, as can be very conveniently done at Lansdowne. But for the whole tour, a most healthful and enjoyable one, set out leisurely with a good pair of shoes and a quiet conscience, from the Lansdowne entrance. The bridle-path from this point keeps between the carriage road and the river for some distance, giving fine views. It joins the carriage road again at the railway bridge, but soon leaves it and passes in front of the mansion, entering there the first of these ravines. SWEET BRIER RAVINE. This ravine is attractive all the year round. It has a brook crossed by a bridge — " A hidden brook In the leafy month of June, That to the sleeping woods all night Singeth a quiet tune." The path descends to the bridge and rises from it by rustic steps, all in excellent keeping with the character of the way. On every side are wild flowers, shrubs, and large forest-trees, many covered with hanging vines. The path and road come out together at "the river road bridge." From this point it soon winds again, seeks the shade of the forest-trees nearer the river, passes under them through thickets of undergrowth, and so descends gradually to FAIRMOUNT PARK. THE LANSDOWNE RAVINE. 75 Large forest-trees stand in this ravine, without any order. Some in friendly groups, some in separate dignities ; some rise from the bottom of the ravine, some start boldly out from its steep sides ; all in a very irregular but not the less most unimprovable manner. A brook begins its little journey from a spring at the head of the ravine,^ in some places hides itself under sprays of ferns, in others trickles and drops down broken ledges, and makes tiny mirrors over smooth-worn stones ; all along its way hang drooping vines. It is a very unpretentious little brook, but, to eyes that see clearly, it is very attractive. Crossing this brook, the path, by a miniature Alpine zigzag with rustic seats, reaches the Lansdowne concourse. Leaving the concourse, it passes along the lawn, giving a broad view of the river on the right hand and the Lansdowne tract on the left, and so enters THE BELMONT VALLEY. The path here turns at a point which gives a view of the river looking northward, and ascends a bluff close to a precipice formed by a quarry, and descends along the side of the ravine. The whole character of this ravine is wild and tangled with vines, ferns, trees, and wild flowers. It is a charming retreat for a summer morning or afternoon with books and leisure. Leaving the ravine, the path joins the main carriage way, and another path on the opposite side continues on towards George's Hill and Bel- mont. ' There is a fine grove of the AngeHca or Hercules chib at the head of this ravine. •j6 FAIRMOUNT PARK. At Belmont, opposite the front of the mansion a guide-board indicates a path to the river through BELMONT GLEN. This path is the most frequented in the Park ; it descends by an easy grade to the Belmont Station on the Reading Railroad, and follows part of the way the course of a brook. It is shaded by forest-trees and vines, except where, in two places, it opens out for short distances to the sun- light, to which the grateful shadow quickly succeeds. The path crosses a rustic bridge half-way between the station and the mansion, and is good at all seasons. There are, besides these, three other ravines on the west side of the river, one above Belmont, the second near Chamouni, descending to the river, and the third also near Chamouni, descending west. These have as yet no defined pathway. On the east bank of the river there is a very romantic ravine on the Fountain Green grounds, and the grand ravine which descends to the river near Ormiston. All these ravines have springs of clear cold water. THE RIVER ROAD. In addition to the views afforded by the main carriage drive and the paths through the ravines, thei-e is also a road along the river margin. This road shows points as interesting as the others. On the east bank it diverges from the main carriage road in the plaza at Fairmount, passes the boat-houses, and under the two bridges through an artificial tunnel, whence it will extend to the Falls and Wissahickon. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 77 On the west bank it connects with the main carriage drive at the bridge beyond Sweet Brier, and there passing under this road, descends to the river, and comes out at the foot of Lansdowne Valley. It passes first THE BELMONT WORKS. These works supply the reservoir at George's Hill, and are operated by steam. Their pumping capacity is 10,000,000 gallons per twenty- four hours. A SHORT distance beyond these works the road passes a low one- story cottage. .1* 78 FAIRMOUNT PARK. TOM MOORE'S COTTAGE. "Alone by the Schuylkill, a wanderer, I strayed." This cottage, with the two old trees, which in the lyric poet's time threw their grateful shadows over its low roof and humble door, are well stricken in years. The vine, which one of these trees has lifted into sun- shme, still clings round it; but the old tree itself every spring-time buds forth more feebly its leaves, and will soon be gone. These fair Schuylkill banks were to Moore, as to others whose troubles were more real than those which ordinarily afflict the poet's over-sensitive existence, a -re- treat so fair," as he has written— "That his charmed soul forgot its wish to roam, And rested there as in a dream of home." FAIRMOUNT PARK. 79 He has left tributes of his genius to these scenes, and composed while among them^ the sweetest of his ballads — " I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled Across the green elms, that a cottage was near, And I said if there 's peace to be found in this world, A heart that is humble might hope for it here." It is a pleasant thing in this poet's memory, that these fair shores, then the abode of wild flowers and merry warblers, an undisturbed tranquillity of shade, should have been after so long a period, and after many rude invasions of trade, restored again to the natural condition in which he knew and loved them.^ After leaving the cottage, the road shaded by an avenue of trees ex- tends for nearly a mile ; it passes under the Railroad Bridge, and termi- nates at the Falls Bridge f crossing which, we reach • 1804 2 Celebrations in honor of Moore were formerly given in this cottage ; of a characteristic one of these, there is a notice in the Press of June 11, 1858. ' The nearer of the bridges in the picture, on page 80, is the Railroad Bridge, the farther the Falls Bridge. So FAIRMOUNT PARK. THE FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL. The Falls, a name now applied to a village, was in former days the name of a natural cascade. A long rock projected from the foot of a hill at this point, and extended two-thirds the distance across the river, form- ing a dam. In the spring the water poured over it in a beautiful cascade; at other seasons it forced the river into a narrow channel, on the western side, with turbulence and great rapidity; the sound could be heard on still evenings a distance of several miles. The rock itself was character- ized by singular indentations, caused probably by ages of attrition ; among them was the apparent impression of a human foot, showing the heel, the FAIRMOUNT PARK. 8l hollow of the instep, the ball of the foot, and toes; it bore name the Devil's foot. It was believed to be an evidence of his real presence here. Time has made great changes in this place; factories have taken the place of fishermen's houses, paved streets of forest pathways, and the irregular and foam-bearded cascade, which gave the place its name, has yielded its inheritance to its smooth-faced younger brother, the steady-going mechanic at Fairmount. Tradition says this was the last place about Philadelphia deserted by the Indians. That it must have been much re- sorted to by them is proved by the fact that very numerous Indian relics have been and are still found here — stone axes, arrow-heads, and other instruments. As late as 1817 it was a famous fishing-place for shad,* perch, rock, and a migratory species of catfish, which came regularly about the 25th of May in numbers so numerous as to blacken the narrow passages of the river.* They were caught, upon the authority of eye- ' These were preserved by smoking, and were in great request in the winter. Our wise Founder did much belove them in this way, " Pray send us," he writes to his steward from Penn's Manor — "pray send us some two or three smoaked haunches of venizon; get them from the Swedes : also some smoaked shadds and beef — the old Priest at Phila- delphia had rare shaddsP 2 This fish-story, unlike many others, is reliable, and within well-authenticated limits. Old John Holmes confirms it in this wise : — " We plenty have of many sorts of fish, As choice and good as any man could wish; Eels, rockfish, trout, shad, herring, perch, and pike. So plenty that I never saw the like." The contests between the fishermen and the canoe-men, who traded on the river about 1722-32, were the subject of legislative action. The depositions of many canoe-men are in the archives of Pennsylvania (1732); among them, one Jonah Jones "Saith that in the month of February, it being extreme cold, he stroke fast on a fish-dam, and, to save his boat of wheat, was obliged to leap into ye river to ye middle of his body — afterwards pro- ceeding with ye said wet clothes, they were frozen stiff on his back, by means whereof he underwent a great deal of misery." The first law passed by the State of Pennsylvania was an act to make this river navigable, and for the preservation of its fish. 82 FAIRMOUNT PARK. witnesses, in nets often so full that the fishermen were unable to lift them into their boats. Shad were caught by dipping-nets; as many as could be raised by the hand were frequently taken at one time; a thousand of these fish have been taken there in those days in two sweeps of the seine. Of rockfish, from thirty to eighty pounds were taken during a morning. The hotels at this point were then the most popular places of resort^ about the environs of Philadelphia, and are still much visited. Back from the Falls, on an eminence on the east side of the Ridge Road, stands the former residence of Governor Mifflin. The house is a noticeable object in this vicinity. THOMAS MIFFLIN. Thomas Mifflin was a member of the Society of Friends. When the news of the battle of Lexington reached Philadelphia, he immediately assumed the cause of the Colonies. He was the youngest and most effective speaker who addressed the people on that occasion, and left immediately after for Boston, and there joined the army. Although his name has got mislaid among their records there, he yet, by his cool and 1 Those ancient hotels, one of which was named in tlie old days Rock Fish Inn, still furnish regular meals — breakfast, dinner, and supper — having, except by special order, the same bill of fare as they served before the Revolution, and orderable always as " cat- fish and coffee." The bill of fare is catfish, beefsteak, broiled chicken, waffles, and coffee. These catfish are, like their progenitors, a distinct fish from those which bear their name on the Delaware, and other rivers of this country; and, unlike them, are delicate in flavor and exceedingly good. These suppers are peculiar to Philadelphia. The fish are kept alive, winter and summer, in large covered boxes, through which fresh spring-water con- stantly runs. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 83 intrepid conduct, much aided to establish the military reputation of that section of our country. He was engaged subsequently at the battle of Princeton, and his portrait is preserved in Trumbull's picture. He was the first Governor of Pennsylvania under the new constitution. On the same side of the road, until a recent period, stood an octagon building once occupied as a school-house ; its master was Joseph Neef, a pupil of Pestalozzi, of Switzerland. JOSEPH NEEF. " The Jolly old Pedagogue long ago." For the school-children with whom once a year the city passes a day of unalloyed pleasure on these grounds, we wish to keep the memory green, of a man who taught school in this section of the Park, and in the octagon house. He first brought school-children to the Park, and was himself all his life-long only one of these of larger growth. And of all men who ever taught school, he was the best beloved by his scholars. He read the rules laid down by Solomon, backwards — spared the children and spoiled the rods. He built the Temple of Science at the foot of the hill, and made it as easy to get there as to coast on sleds in winter-time. He was out of doors with- the boys all summer ; never had a hat on his head nor a cent in his pocket ; never got tired running up and down the hills ; was the best swimmer and the best skater, and his boys the best swimmers and the best skaters in the whole neigh- borhood ; he never had a book in his school, and could whistle through his fingers like a steam-whistle. 84 FAIRMOUNT PARK. The old octagon house was full from the garret to the cellar of boys of all kmds, sizes, and dispositions, and everything was as pleasant in the school as if it had been " home in the holidays," and for many boys a great deal pleasanter. But what was best of all in that school, the smart boys grew smarter and the dull boys grew brighter, so that at last when a great prodigy^ who had been born with his head full of figures, came there to puzzle them, they gave him harder puzzlers in return, and when he grew angry and struck out boldly with a switch which he carried, they doubled up hands and whipped him, and the old man laughed all the while. So here is to the memory of "the Jolly old Pedagogue" who first brought into this country the system of Pestalozzi^ which revo- lutionized and humanized education, and the good influence of which is felt to this hour in all the common schools of America. ' Zerah Colborn. 2 We are indebted to Mr. William McClure, the philosopher who endowed the Academy of Natural Sciences, for his sojourn and its good, results here. He met him in Switzerland, and induced him to return with him to be his Master's Apostle in the New World. — Hagner^s Sketch of the Falls. mm ^ FAIRMOUNT PARK. 85 FORT ST. DAVIDS. Fort St. Davids was a rude but strong structure of heavy timber, cut from the opposite forests and erected long anterior to the Revolution. It was located at the foot of a hill, from which the rock forming the falls projected. On the hill a tall flagstaff was erected, from which floated King George's flag. In the interior hung a picture of his majesty and Queen Charlotte, and of Hendrick, King of the Mohawks. The room was decorated with an immense hat four feet in width, and other parapher- nalia, dried fish, turtles, and Indian curiosities; a large bowl of **the great Mr. Pitt," wineglasses and decanters of curious workmanship, and a set of china with the Schuylkill arms. The company had also a flag on which were a moon, a fish, and a crown. 86 FAIRMOUNT PARK. The Society of Fort St. Davids, the builders of this house and its gas- tronomic garrison, were companions of the Founder, and, like the former catfish of this stream, were accredited as a superior species ; but, like those steadfast fishermen below, they had immense good times on all suitable occasions, and they never failed to make all unsuitable occasions suitable. They ultimately voyaged down the stream' to their brothers, then at the Baron Warner's, with whom they still dwell in indissoluble connection, capacious^ both for good-humor and for fish. This garrison, during the Revolution, has a very noble record, in which good-humor was laid aside and its whole duty to the country sternly and fully done. JOHN DICKINSON. Among the names on the rolls of this Society is John Dickinson, the Author of "the Farmer's Letters." This "shadow," rather than man, " slender as a reed, pale as ashes,"' this great writer, has been suffered to lapse almost into oblivion, yet it was in him God first lighted the fires of the Revolution. His letters made the cause of the Colonies heard before the throne of Great Britain, and it is his name only which is associated with Jefferson's as the writer ' Their house, in revenge for the part they took in the Revolution, was reduced to a heap of ruins by Hessian soldiers, who were quartered near Rock Fish Inn, under Gen. Kniphausen. They remained here some time after the Revolution, and rebuilt their house. The print represents the second house ; it was destroyed by an accidental fire. ^ Godfrey Schronk, a noted fisherman, assured John Watson, the chronicler, that the small garrison at Fort St. Davids cooked and put away often forty dozen catfish at a meal. At the house at Gray's Ferry, a notice of catches (1S30) averages to one fisherman from five to twenty dozen white perch, and the aggregate catches, before their removal from the Baron Warner's, on fishing-days, ran fifty, eighty, and one hundred dozen. ■* John AVz " SVz " Vd " 4 " I mile. IK " AK miles. 4% " 5^ " 5X " 7 " 124 FAIRMOUNT PARK. RULES AND REGULATIONS. Section I. — Penal. 1. No person shall drive or ride in Fairmount Park at a rate exceeding seven miles an hour. 2. No one shall ride or drive therein upon any other part of the Park than upon the avenues and roads. 3. No vehicle of burden or traffic shall pass through the Park. 4. No person shall enter or leave the Park except by such gates or avenues as may be for such purpose arranged. 5. No coach or vehicle used for hire shall stand upon any part of the Park, for the purpose of hire. 6. No person shall indulge in any threatening, abusive, insulting, or indecent language in the Park. 7. No person shall engage in any gaming, nor commit any obscene or indecent act, in the Park. 8. No person shall carry fire-arms or shoot birds in the Park, or with- in fifty yards thereof, or throw stones or other missiles therein. 9. No person shall disturb the fish or water-fowl in the pool or pond, or birds in any part of the Park, or annoy, strike, injure, maim, or kill any animal kept by the direction of the Commissioners, either running at large or confined in a close; nor discharge any fireworks, nor afiix any bills or notices therein. 10. No person shall cut, break, or in any wise injure or deface the trees, shrubs, plants, turf, or any of the buildings, fences, bridges, structures, or statuary, or foul any fountains or springs within the Park. 11. No person shall throw any dead animal or offensive matter or sub- FAIRMOUNT PARK. 125 stance of any kind, into the river Schuylkill, within the boundaries of Fairmount Park. 12. No person shall go in to bathe within the Park. 13. No person shall turn cattle, goats, swine, horses, dogs, or other animals loose into the Park. 14. No person shall injure, deface, or destroy any notices, rules, or regulations for the government of the Park, posted or in any other man- ner permanently fixed by order or permission of the Commissioners of Fairmount Park within the limits of the same. Any person who shall violate any of said Rules and Regulations shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and for each and every such offence shall pay the sum of five dollars, to be recovered before any Alderman of the city of Philadelphia, as debts of that amount are recoverable, which fines shall be paid into the City Treasury, for Park purposes. Section II. — Licenses. 1. No person shall expose any article for sale within the Park, without the previous license of the Park Commissioners. 2. No person shall have any musical, theatrical, or other entertainment therein, nor shall any military or other parade or procession, or funeral, take place in or pass through the limits of the Park, without the license of the Park Commissioners. 3. No gathering or meeting of any kind, assembled through advertise ment, shall be permitted in the Park without the previous permission of the Commissioners. 4. No person shall engage in any play at base-ball, cricket, shinney, foot-ball, croquet, or at any other games with ball and bat, nor shall any foot-race or horse-race be permitted within the limits of the Park, except on such grounds only as shall be specially designated for such purpose. 126 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 5. No person shall take ice from the Schuylkill within the Park, with- out the license of the said Commissioners first had, upon such terms as they may think proper. 6. No person shall be permitted to use the shores of the river Schuylkill within the boundaries of Fairmount Park as a landing-place for boats, or keep thereat boats for hire, nor floating boat-houses with pleasure-boats for hire, except by special license or lease granted by the Commissioners, to be paid for as the Commissioners shall from time to time direct, and only at places designated by and under restrictions determined upon by said Commissioners. 7. No regatta or boat-race by boat-clubs, whose houses are built upon any part of the Park grounds, shall take place within the boundaries of the Park without special permission granted by the Commissioners, or by their Committee on Superintendence and Police. 8. Every boat or skating club, whose house or building is built on Park grounds, shall be required to obtain a license or lease from the Commissioners, on such terms and under such restrictions as the Commis- sioners shall determine. Section III. — ProJiihitions. 1. No gathering or meeting for political purposes in the Park shall be permitted under any circumstances. 2. No intoxicating liquors shall be allowed to be sold within said Park. Section IV. — Duties of Park- Guard or Police. I. It shall be the duty of the Park-Guard or Police appointed to duty in the Park, without warrant, fortliwith to arrest any offender against the preceding rules and regulations, whom they may detect in the commis- FAIRMOUNT PARK. 127 sion of such offence, and to take the person or persons so arrested forth- with before a magistrate having competent jurisdiction. 2. It shall be the duty of the Park-Guard or Police appointed to duty in the Park, at the termination of each week, to make a written report to the Committee on Superintendence and Police of all infractions of these rules and regulations, the number of arrests made, the nature of each offence, the name of the magistrate before whom each offender was taken, and the amounts of fines imposed and paid in each case. By order of the Commissioners of Fairmount Park. 128 FAIRMOUNT PARK. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PARK-GUARD. 1. Neatness in dress, propriety in speech and demeanor, perfect sobriety, obliging manners, and courtesy towards every visitor of the Park, are essential requisites for a satisfactory discharge of the duties of the Guard. 2. The uniform of the Guard being furnished by the Commissioners, it is only to be worn when on duty, and is to be kept in a cleanly and tidy condition. 3. The Guard is expected to render all possible aid and assistance in case of accidents to pedestrians, horsemen, or carriages, and particularly to protect females and children against every kind of annoyance, rudeness, or insult from evil-disposed and disorderly persons. 4. Whilst the Guard is expected to repress every kind of disorder and misconduct on the part of visitors, and to arrest those who are clearly guilty of an intentional violation of the rules and regulations ordained for the government and protection of the Park, great care is recommended not to become over-meddlesome, and thereby create instead of avoiding disorder. 5. Arrests should only be made when either the Guard himself or some respectable person at hand can testify to a malicious violation of the rules and regulations. 6. No arrest should be made for mere trifling violations, when a quiet reminder or reprimand would suffice to prevent a repetition of the offence. 7. Great indulgence is recommended towards children ; but discreet, dignified, yet firm and decisive action towards gangs of unruly boys. 8. No officer of the peace should ever disgrace his position by abusing his authority, or by the exercise of tyranny make himself a terror to well- disposed citizens. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 129 9. The Guard will remember that they are numbered, to enable any respectable person to complain of their misconduct, which, when clearly established, will lead to their immediate dismissal. 10. The Guard is required to make faithfully the weekly written report prescribed by the rules, and hand the same to the Chairman of the Com- mittee on Superintendence and Police, stating at the same time all com- plaints made by respectable persons concerning inconveniences or annoy- ances in the Park. 11. The Guard is under the immediate direction of the Committee on Superintendence and Police. The Guard is required to obey the orders of the Chief Engineer of the Park. Such as are stationed near the Fair- mount Water Works, or near any other water works of the city of Phila- delphia, will duly respect the orders of the Chief Engineer of Water Works touching the property belonging to his department within the Park. 12. In cases of emergency, the Park-Guard is subject to the orders of the Mayor of the city of Philadelphia. 13. The Park-Guard is required to be on duty from 7 A.M. till sunset, during the months of May, June, July, August, September, and October, Those of the Guard who are on duty during the night, are required to report themselves half an hour before the day Guard is relieved. 14. Every member of the Guard is bound to report in person at least once during every twenty-four hours, at the office of the Chief Engineer, situated within the limits of the Park. 15. In case of sickness or other unavoidable inability to attend to his duty, every member of the Guard is required to have the fact immediately reported at the office of the Chief Engineer. 16. Room will be provided near the Chief Engineer's office for the convenience of the Guard to put on and take off the Guard uniform. By order of the Committee on Superintendence and Police. THE SCHUYLKILL NAVY. The boats are classified as follows : — First Class .... Shells. Second Class , . . Outrigger Lapstreaks. Third Class .... Smooth Gunwale Barges. The regulation size of flags is as follows : — For boat-house, 30 X 4° inches, bunting. " boats, 12 X 18 " silk, to be carried at the bow. " racing, 6x8" " " " THE PACIFIC BARGE CLUB. Organized June 15, 1859. It is unattached to the Navy. Uniform: winter — pants dark blue cloth (Navy style), shirt black and scarlet striped, caps leather (skull) ; summer — pants white linen, hats straw. Number of members, active twenty, honorary four. BOATS. Imp . . . length, 42 feet; oars, 6; class, 3d; color, varnished Spanish cedar. Flirt . . " 38 " "4; " 3d; " white cedar, painted. Wren . . " 27 " double sculls ; class, ist; color, varnished Spanish cedar. The Imp is considered the best boat of its class on the river ; carries eighteen persons. The club has an elegant model of the Wren, made by one of their members. It is twenty-seven inches long, of six different woods ; com- plete in every particular, and fastened with five hundred and four copper rivets. THE QUAKER CITY BARGE CLUB. Organized October 20, 1858. Uniform: shirt blue, with white trim- ming and trefoil corners ; cap blue, with name on front; jacket blue, with navy buttons ; pants blue. Number of members, active thirty, honorary (131) 132 FAIRMOUNT PARK. six. This club has held the first class champion flag for three successive years. It has also the second class champion flag for four-oared boats. Nautilus Cygnet . Bertha . Swan . . Spider . Iris . . . Wasp . . . BOATS, length, 48 feet ; oars, 4; class, 1st; color, varnished. 42 25 30 17 40 40 " 4; " 2d; " white, double sculls ; class, 2d ; color, white, single " " 1st; paper. a it it a (( oars, 6 ; " 3d ; color, white body. " 4; class, 1st; paper. These two clubs occupy the first of the range of barge- houses going from Fairmount. It is of stone, and was built in i860. It is fifty-five feet long and thirty-five feet wide, divided into two compartments. The house has balconies at each end. THE PENNSYLVANIA BARGE CLUB. Was organized June 4, 1861, as the Atlantic Barge Club, and subse- quently changed to this name. Uniform : dark blue shirt, dark blue pants, and leather cap. Active members twenty-five, contributors thirty. Among their boats is a twelve-inch paper shell, thirty-two feet long; weight, thirty-two pounds ; built for and named Henry Coulter. BOATS. Falcon length, 42 feet; oars, 6; class, 3d; color, red, gold stripe, " 38 " "4; " 3d; " black, gold stripe. " 42 " "4; " 2d; " varnished. " 20 " doul:)le sculls ; class, 2d ; color, red, black stripe. " 34'2" single " " 1st; "■ varnished. " 32 " " " " 1st ; " " paper. " ^2^i" " " « 1st; " Stranger ... < ' 38 ' Mermaid .... ' 42 " Celia ' 20 " John Culin . . ' 34 T' Henry Coulter " 32 " JOSIE " ?>2,yi" FAIRMOUNT PARK. 133 THE CRESCENT BOAT CLUB. Organized December ist, 1867. Uniform: for winter — dark navy blue coat, shirt, and trowsers, sailor cap with the club name; summer — straw hat, blue shirt and trowsers. Active members thirty-two, contri- buting eighteen. BOATS, length, 48 feet ; oars, 6 ; class, 2d ; color, green, black stripe. " 42 " "6; " 3d; " crimson, gold stripe. " 25 " double sculls; class, 2d ; color, crimson, gold stripe. « 14!/^" " " << 2d; " " " " a « « 2d; " « " " " " " 1st; varnished. 42 " oars, 4; class, ist; color, " 25 " single " 1st; " " 28 " " " 1st; " " 28 " " " 1st; " « 15 " " scull; class, 2d; black. Intrepid lONE . . Sylph . Turtle Nereid GWLET . Crescent Petrel . Frolic . Ah Sin . Clam . . 35 " The Pennsylvania and Crescent Clubs own and occupy the same build- ing (the second of the houses) ; it is of stone, fifty by forty feet, two stories in height, with a Mansard roof. Each club has entirely separate apartments, the boat-rooms on the first floor being separated by a stone partition-wall. In consequence of the higher grade on the Park front, the house is entered on the second floor, a six feet wide hall running between the dressing and reception rooms, on each side. The Crescent occupy the southwest side of the building. Their rooms are plastered alike, roughcast tinted, with gilt cornices. The dressing-room is furnished with closets for each member, a six-light chandelier, side lights, mirror, &c.; the wood-work finished in oak, and the floor oiled and varnished. 134 FAIRMOUNT PARK. The reception-room is finished in walnut, has a four-light chandelier, the furniture walnut and green rep ] the windows are curtained, the floor carpeted, and the walls decorated with paintings. A glass door opens out upon a balcony which extends along the entire river front of the house. The above-mentioned clubs were the first to introduce this style of building, affording the most commodious boat-houses in this country. BACHELORS' BARGE CLUB. Organized on the 4th of July, 1853; it is unattached to the Navy. Uniform : blue flannel shirt, bound with single white braid, gilt buttons on front and on the cuffs j blue cloth pants, heavy blue cloth pea-jacket, blue cloth navy cap lettered Bachelor, and black silk neckerchief. Summer : straw hat, black ribbon streamer and gilt letters Bachelor in front. Twenty-nine active members, twenty-three honorary members. BOATS. Bachelor . . . length, 52 feet; oars, 6; class, ist; color, varnished. Linda " 50 " "6; " 3d; " " Lotus " 42 " "4; " 2d; " green, gold stripe. Gazelle .... " 25 " double sculls; class, 2d; color, varnished. Brat " 30 " one pair sculls " ist; " " Cub " 32 " " " " " 1st; " " " — " oars, 4; class, ist; color, varnished. The house of this club is the third of the boat-houses ; a neat brown stone, Gothic edifice, two stories high, with balconies. It is fifty-five feet long, and twenty-five feet wide. It, as also the others, have the same general style and arrangements with the first of the houses. FAIRMOUNT TARK. UNIVERSITY BARGE CLUB. 135 Organized April 25, 1854, by classmen of the University of Pennsyl- vania. Uniform: red flannel shirt bound with black braid, jet buttons, and falling collar with black silk stars in the corners ; black pantaloons in winter, white in summer; black patent-leather belt with U. B. C. in raised plated letters ; black silk necktie ; black morocco jockey cap in winter, and in summer a white Mackinaw straw hat bound with black, with University in gold letters on the ribbon, and the initials of the owner painted in black on the crown. Forty-two active members, thirty-six honorary. It is now the senior club of the Navy. BOATS. University, length, 48 feet ; oars, 4; class, ist; color, varnished. Hesperus " 36 " "4; " ist; " " Lucifer . " 45 " " 6; " 2d; " white, black and red stripe. PHILADELPHIA BARGE CLUB. Organized December 8, 1862; incorporated July 13, 1870. Uniform: a plain double-breasted shirt of blue flannel, covered buttons, and white flannel trowsers, pea-jacket, and skullcap of same material as shirt. Number of members, seventeen active, and nine honorary. BOATS. Faugh a Ballagh, length, 42 feet; oars, 6; class, 2d; color, varnished. No Name " 22 " double sculls ; class, 2d; color, varnished. " 41 " oars, 4; class, ist; paper; weight 100 pounds, " 37 " " "3d; color, varnished. " 17 " single scull; class, 2d; color, varnished. The University and Philadelphia occupy jointly the fourth of the houses. It is 42 X 57 feet ; built of West Chester green stone, Mansard 136 FAIRMOUNT PARK. roof; bay windows on the Park side, and is fitted up with dressing and reception rooms, balcony extending over the whole river front, and over the bay windows on the Park side. MALTA BOAT CLUB. Organized February, 1S60. The uniform is blue shirt trimmed with red cord, blue pants, blue sack-coat with navy buttons, and blue cap. Members, thirty-two active, three contributing, one honorary. In addi- tion to the boats as classified, this club is building two others. BOATS, Hiawatha . . . length, 43 feet ; oars, 6; class, 2d; color, green, gold stripe. " 35 " "6; " 3d; " orange, gold stripe. " 45 " "6; " 2d; " varnished. " 46 " "4; " 1st; " " " 18 " double sculls ; class, 3d ; color, varnished. VESPER BOAT CLUB. Organized February 22, 1865. It is unattached to the Navy. The uniform is dark blue flannel shirt (U. S. seaman's pattern), dark blue pants, cap, and pea-jacket. Members, thirty-six active, ten honorary. BOATS. Vesper .... length, 42)^ feet; oars, 6; class, 3d; color, white, gold stripe. Venture ... " 37 " " 4 ; " 3d ; " varnished. Onward ... " 373^ « "4; " 2d; " red, gold stripe. Vagabond . . " 26 " double sculls ; class, 2d ; color, varnished. Volant ... " 42 " oars, 4; class, ist; color, varnished. Two single working boats. The house of the Vesper and Malta is the fifth in order. Is an ornate structure of stone. Minnehaha Columbia . Idalia . . . Wasp . . . . FAIRMOUNT PARK. THE UNDINE BARGE CLUB. 137 Organized May 9, 1856. Uniform : blue flannel shirt with white trim- mings, blue pants, straw hat, black ribbon with word Undine in gilt letters. Members, fifty-eight active, ten honorary. A record of one of its members, from August, 1862, to January, 1871, shows an actual dis- tance pulled of over 11,481 miles. The Club's record shows that its boats are out from five hundred to seven hundred times yearly. For the year 1868, five hundred and fifty-one times 3 1869, seven hundred and forty-five times; 1870, six hundred and fifty times. The greatest number of miles rowed by a member was in 1866, 1402 miles; in 1867, 1224; in 1868, 1 281; in 1869, 2643; i" 1870, 1202. In 1868, twenty-four members rowed an average of 443 miles; in 1869, eighteen members an average of 551 ; in 1870, twenty-two members an average of 410. This Club occupies a portion of the Skating Club's house. BOATS. Scud length, 43 feet; oars, 4; class, 1st; color, varnished. Whisper " 42 " " 4; " ist; " '• New Atalanta . " 45 " "6; " 2d; " " Old Atalanta . " 40 " " 6 ; " 2d ; " blue, gold stripe. Undine " 40 " " 6; " 3d; " " " " Fawn " 23 J;^" double sculls ; class, 2d; color, blue, gold stripe. Crab " 17 " i pair " " 2d; " " " " Selah " 31 " " " " 1st; " varnished. Ripple " " single " " ist; " •' «C. V" " 20 " " " " " " Terrapin . ..." 17 " " " 2d; " " " 34 " double sculls ; " 1st; " " 12^ 138 FAIRMOUNT PARK. ROWING TIME. The best time as yet made on the Schuylkill is — June I, 1867. Hesperus . . . . 4 oars 1st class . . . 20 mill . 03 sec " I, " Bachelor . . . . 6 " ist " . . 20 38 " " I, " Iris . 6 " 3d " . • 19 3- " " 15, " New Atalanta . 6 " 2d " . . 18 54 " July 1S69. Hiawatha . . . . 6 " 2d " . . 18 02 " " Minnehaha . . . 6 " 3d " . . • 19 05 " Oct. I, 1-870. Quaker City . 4 " 1st •' . • 19 26 " " 5, " Single Scull. 20 The distance from Turtle Rock to Girard Avenue Bridge is 2060 feet ; to the rock just beyond the Connecting Railway Bridge on the west bank, X a ™ile ; to a point half-way between the lower end of the island and the steamboat landing on the west bank, I mile; to the Columbia Bridge, i mile and 1400 feet; to the middle of Peters Island, I'x mile; to Berkenbine's clearing, 2 miles ; to Laurel Hill landing, 2 miles and 2300 feet ; to a long white house on the west bank, half-way between the landing and the Falls Bridge, 2}i miles ; to the Falls Bridge, 2 miles and 4600 feet. The stake boat was placed here at the race, October, 1870. LIST OF TREES AND HERBACEOUS PLANTS IN THE PARK WHICH FLOWER IN MAY. TREES AND SHRUBS. Acer. Maple. saccharinum Sugar. dasycarpuui Silver-leaved. platanoides Norway Maple. campestre English Maple pseudo platanus English Sycamore. rubrum Red Maple. Negundo. Box Elder. fraxinifolium Ash-leaved. Celtis. Beaver wood. Occident alls Western. Feaxinus. Ask. Americana American. juglandifolia Walnut-leaved. sambucifolia Elder-leaved. .ffiscuLUS. Horse Chestind. hippocastanum Common. Ohioensis Ohio. rubicunda Ruddy. pallida Pale-flowered. Pavia. Pavia. flava Yellow. humilis Humble. Cerasis. Cherry. multiplex pendula Weeping d. fl. Virginiana Virginia Bird Cherry. Cercis. Judas Tree. Canadensis Canadian Tree. Betula. Birch. alba White. nigra Black. Castanea. Chestnut. vesca Common. CoRYLUS. Hazel. Americana American. Halesia. Silver Bell. tetraptera Four- winged. Laurus. hauriis. sassafras Sassafras Tree. benzoin Spice Bush. LiRiODENDRON. TuUp Tree. tulipifera Tulip Flowering. MoRUS. Mulberry. alba White. rubra Red, Nyssa. Sour Gum Tree. vallosa Hairy. DiosPYROS. Persimmon. Virginiana Common Virginian. Salix. Willovj. fragilis Brittle. nigra Black. yitellina Golden. Russelliana Russell's. laurifolia Laurel-leaved. caprea pendula Kilmar'k Weeping. rosem rinafolia Rosemarj'-leaved. Cydoma. Quince. Japonica Japan. Japonica alba White. vulgaris Common. Kalmia. Kalmia. latifolia. Broad -leaved. Forsyth lA. Golden Bell. viridissima Green-leaved. Zanthoxylum. Toothache. fraxineum Ash-leaved. Staphyla. Bladder-nut. trifolium Three-leaved. Syringa. Lilac Tree. vulgaris Common. alba White. persica Persian. Calycanthus. Sweet Shrub. florida Flowering. EuONYMDS. Burning Bush. atropurpureus Dark Purple. Americana American. LiGUSTRUM. Privet. communis Common. Ribes. Rihes. aureum Gold en-flowered Currant. CoRNus. Dogwood. florida White-flowered. sericea Silky. Crat^gus. Hawthorn. oxycantha English. crusgalli Cockspur. Fagus. Beech. sylvatica Common wood. C 139) 140 FAIRMOUNT PARK. QUERCUS. Oak. nigra Black. faleata Spanish alba White. discolor Two-colors. rubra Red. prinus Chestnut. quercitron Dyer's. heterophylla Various-lea veJ. Carpinus. Hornbeam. Americana American. Platan us. Bitttonvood. occidental is Western. JUGLANS. Wabuit. regia Royal. nigra Black. compressa Shelbark. macrocarpa Large -fruited. alba Common Hickory. porcina Pignut " TiLiA. Linden. Americana American. rubra Red. Europea European. Paulo WN I A. Pa^doicnia. imperial is Imperial. Broussonetia. p. Mulberry. papyrifera Paper. Gleditschia. Locust. tricanthos Three-spined. inermis Thornless. Chionanthus. W. Fringe. Virginica Virginian. Gymnocladus. Ky. Coffee. Canadense Canadian. Alnus. Alder. glauca Mealy-leaved. Magnolia. Magnolia. cordata 11 eart-shaped leaf. tripetela Umbrella Tree. purpurea Purple-flowered. purpurea gracilis Slen. purple -flow'd. Amygdalus. Almond. persica flore pleno D. Persian. Azalea. Kosebay. viscosa Clammy. Berberis. Barberry. vulgaris Common. atropurpurea Dark Purple. Spirea. ISpirea. prunifolium Plum -leaved. Reevesii White-liowered. Kerria. Kerria. Japonica Japan. Deutzia. Deutzia.. scabra Rough. gracilis Slender. crenatafl. pi Double Pink-flowered. Viburnum. Vibumnm. prenifolium Plum-leaved. lantanoides Lantana-like. oxycocus T ree Cranberry. Weigelia. Weigelia. amabilis Lovely. rosen Rosy. Philaiielpiius. Mock Orange. coronarius Common. grandiflorus Grand-flowering. Rhus. Mist Tree. cotinus Wild Olive. LoNiCERA. Honeysuckle. tartarica Tartarian. alba White. xylosteum English Fly. Glycina. ) „, . . ,,, > (jlycinia. Wistaria. ) ■' HERBACEOUS PLANTS. Erigeron. Plantain. bellidifolium Daisy -flowered. Panax. Ginseng. quinquifolia Five-leaved. pentstemon Pentstemon. pubescens Hairy. OxALiS. Wood Sorrel. acetosella Common. violacea Violet-flowered. stricta Upright. Cardamine. Lady Smock. Pennsylvanica Pennsylvania!!. Dentaria. Tooth l]^ort. laciniata Jagged. Arabis. Wall Cress. faleata. Sickle-pod. TradescANTIA. Spider Wort. Virginica Virginian. rosea Rose-colored. FAIRMOUNT PARK. 141 Veronica. Speedwell. setigera Bristly. arvensis Cornfield. serpyllifolia Serpyllium-leaved. CoNVALLARiA. Lily of Valley. majalis May. Smilacina. Smilacina. racemosa Racemose-flowered. trifolia Three-leaved. bifolia Two-leaved. POLYGONATUM. SolomOll's. multiflorum Many-flowered. Saxafraga. Saxafraga. Pennsylvanica Pennsylvanian. Virginica Virginian. HOUSTONIA. Hoiistoilia. cerulea Blue-flowered. Claytonia. Glaytonla. Virginica Virginian. Hepatica. Hepatica. triloba Three-lobed. Alsine. duckweed. pubescens Pubescent. media Mediate. Erythronium. Violet. Americanum American. Barb are A. Mustard. precox Early. CoRYDALis. (Jorydalis. lutea Yellow. FuMARiA. Fumaria. officinalis Officinale. Senecio. Groundsel. surea Yellow. Valerianella. Lamhs-lettuee. radiata Radiated. olitoria Salad. Aquilegia. Columhine. Canadense Canadian. Viola. Violet. pedata Pedate. blanda White. lanceolata Lance-leaved. hastata Halberd-leaved. saggitata Snow-leaved. rotundifolia Round-leaved. trifoliata lutea Three-leaved Yellow. striata Striped. arvensis Field. Chelidonidm. Celandine. majus Large. Anemone. Anemone. thalictroides Thalictrum-like. nemorosa Grove. SiNAPlS. 'Mustard. nigra Common Black. Leontodon. Dandelion. taraxacum Common. HiERACiUM. Hawkweed. venosum Veined-leaf. EuNEX. Dock. crispa Curled. obtusifolium Obtuse-leaved. Krigia. Krigia. Virginica Virginian. MuscARlA. Grape Hyacinth. botryoides Botrys-like. • Chcerophyllum. Chervil. Canadense Canadian. Smyrnium. Alexanders. trifoliatum Three-leaved. purpurea Purple. Trillium. Trillium. cerneum Drooping-flowered. Aralia. Aralia. nudicaulis Naked-stemmed. Thalictrum. E. Meadow Rue. dioeeium Dioecious. Caulophyllum. Canlopliyllnm. thalictroides Thalictrum-like. asarum Ginger Root. Canadense Canadian. CocHLEARiA. Scuvvygrass. armoracea Horseradish. Lamium. Archangel. ampelicaule Stem-clasp Hen. Galium. Bedstraw. Aparine CI eavers. tinctorium ....Dyers. Podophyllum. May Apple. peltatura Peltate- leaf. Chrysosplenium. Saxafrage. oppositifolium Opposite leaved. Ranunculus. Croivfoot. Pennsylvanica Pennsylvanian. bulbosa Bulbous. fascicularis Bundled. abortiva Abortive. Symplocarpus. Sku7ik Cahhage. foetidus Fetid. angustifolium Narrow-spathed. Arum. Arum. triphyllum Three-leaved. atrorubens Dark Purple Stalked. Draba. Draba. verna Vernal. Chrysanthemum. Chrysanthemum. leucanthemum Ox-eye Daisy. 142 FAIRMOUNT PARK. Glechoma. Ground Ivy. rotundifolia Kound-leaved hederacea Common. PoTENTlLLA. Ciuquefoil. sannentosa Twigged. Canadensis Canadian. Fragaria. Strawberry. vesca Wood. Geranium. Crane^s Bill. maculatum Spotted. Oknitiiogalhm. Star of Bcthlchein. umbellatura Umbel lated. Epige^. Ground Laurel. repens Creeping. Saliva. Sage. lyrata Lyre-shaped. Malaxis. Malaxis. ]ilifolium Lilj-leaved. Nasturtium. Nastitrtium. officinalis Officinale. Medeola. Indian Cucnmber. Virginica Virginian. SiSYRYNCiiiUM. Blue-eyed Grass. anceps Iris-leaved. Heuciiera. Aram Root. Americana American. Plantago. Tlaiitain. major Large. Virginica Virginian. lanceolata Lance-leaved. crassifolia Thick-leaved. Trifolium. Clover. pratense Common Red. repens White Clover. campestre Slender Wood. Antennaria. Ant. plantaginea Plantain-leaved. LIST OF WORKS OF ART. Statue of Justice, at Faimiount, carved by Rush. " Wisdom, " " " The Graff Memorial, " Marble antique, " Leda and the Swan, " carved by Rush. Emblematic composition on wheel-houses, carved by Rush. Marble Fountain, copy from a celebrated fountain in Rome. The first fountain on the Wissahickon, marble. The Indian (roughly cut in wood). ^ Two Pegasus Groups (to arrive in June). Venus risen from the Bath, cast finished by Dr. Rush. COMPARATIVE SIZE OF PARKS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. FROM THE MOST RELIABLE SOURCES. Park at the Hague, 200 acres. Alameda, City of Mexico, 12 acres. Park at Munich, 320 acres. Peel, Manchester, 32 acres. Petit Park, Versailles, 1280 acres. Palais Royal, 10 acres. Tuileries, 50 acres. Luxembourg, 160 acres. Champs Elys^e, 225 acres. The Bois de Boulogne, 2158 acres. Grosse Garden, Saxony, 800 acres. Schwebgingen, near Heidelberg, 300 acres. Schloss Garden, Stuttgard, 560 acres. Hof Garden, Munich, 500 acres. Thier Garden, Berlin, 200 acres. Djurgard, Stockholm, 480 acres. The Prater, Vienna, 2500 acres. The Summer Garden, near St. Petersburg, 480 acres. Boboli, Florence, 200 acres. Tzarsco Selo, near St. Petersburg, 350 acres, Sweetzingen, near Mannheim, 100 acres. Richmond Hill, 2468 acres. Lambeth, 250 acres. Kew Garden, 684 acres. Arboretum, Derby, 50 acres. Meadows, Edinburgh, 200 acres. Phoenix Park, Dublin, 1752 acres. Birkenhead, Liverpool, 185 acres. Kensington Gardens, 35 acres. Buckingham Palace, 40 acres. Hyde Park, 389 acres. St. James's Park, 59 acres. Green Park, 55 acres. Regent's Park, 450 acres. Norfolk, Sheffield, 20 acres. Primrose Hill, 50 acres. Greenwich Park, 200 acres. Baxter, Dundee, 37 acres. Victoria, 300 acres. Crystal Palace, Edinburgh, 200 acres. Bat- tersea, 175 acres. Albert Park, 409 acres. Kensington Park, 262 acres. Chiswick Gardens, ^^ acres. Windsor Little Park, 500 acres. Windsor Great Park, 1800 acres. Hampton Court, 1872 acres. Green, Glasgow, 121 acres. Prince's Park, Liverpool, 90 acres. Washington, South Park, 150 acres. Hartford, Central, 46 acres. New York, Central Park, 862 acres. The other New York public grounds are — The Battery, 30 acres; City Hall Park, loj^ acres; Washington Parade Ground, g}4 acres; Union Square, 4 acres ; Stuyvesant Park, 4 acres ; Tompkins Square, lOK acres ; Madison Square, 7 acres; St. John's Park, 4 acres; Gramercy Park, IK acre. Brooklyn, Prospect, 550 acres. Baltimore, Druid Hall, 700 acres, and Patterson's Park, 353^ acres. San Fran- cisco has twelve squares of small extent — one improved. Cincinnati, Washington Park, 4M acres; Lincoln Park, 7 acres; Hopkins, ij^ acre; City Park, i]4 acre; and Long- worth's Garden of Eden, 156 acres. St. Louis, Tower Grove Park, 276j'y^ acres; it has also fourteen others, containing 119 acres, and Shaw's Garden, the wonder of the West, (143) 144 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 276 acres. Chicago, Lincoln Park, 50 acres; Washington Park 2^3^, acres; Lake Park, 40 acres; Dearborn Park, i}i acre; Ellis Park, 3 acres; Union Park, 17 acres; Jefferso! Park, 5>i acres; Vernon Park, 4 acres: in all, nearly 126 acres, in addition to the River- side, 1600 acres. Boston, Common, 48 arres. New Haven, Wooster, 5 acres; the Green, 16 acres; the Brewster, 55 acres. Philadelphia, Hunting Park, 45 acres; Fair- mount Park, 2740 acres. The other Philadelphia Parks, or Squares, are — Logan Square, 7 acres 3 roods; Franklin Square, 7 acres 3 roods; Rittenhouse Square, 6 acres 2 roods; Washington Square 6 acres 2 roods; Independence Square, 4 acres 2 roods; Jefferson Square, 2 acres 2 roods. BD 1 ^^-V* -3^r A ^ . 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