The Saunterer

Charles Platt on the architect of the house and the architect of its garden

    The two architects should be the same, Charles Platt explains:

The evident harmony of arrangement between the house and surrounding landscape is what first strikes one in Italian landscape architecture –- the design as a whole, including gardens, terraces, groves, and their necessary surroundings and embellishments, it being clear that no one of these component parts was ever considered independently, the architect of the house being also the architect of the garden and the rest of the villa. With the problem being to take a piece of land and make it habitable, the architect proceeded with the idea that not only was the house to be lived in, but that one still wished to be at home while out of doors; so the garden was designed as another apartment, the terraces and groves still others, where one might walk about and find a place suitable to the hour of the day and feeling of the moment, and still be in that sacred portion of the globe dedicated to one’s self.

    (Quoted from page 122 of American Eden: From Monticello to Central Park to our Backyards: What Our Gardens Tell Us About Who We Are, by Wade Graham. HarperCollins, 2011.)
    For a brief biography of Charles A. Platt, click here.
    For a brief work biography of Wade Graham, click here.
    For Stephen Colbert interviewing Wade Graham on “What is gardening for?,” click here.

Mark Twain on cats

    Mark Twain’s remark about cats invites reflection:

Of all God’s creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

    (Quoted from page 50 of Cats, edited by Lynn Hughes. Congdon & Lattès. New York, 1979.)
    For a brief biography of Mark Twain, click here. For images of or relating to Mark Twain, click here.

John Greenleaf Whittier on wild nature as a gift from God

    You don’t have to be religious to appreciate John Greenleaf Whittier’s sense:

How I wish I could show thee how lovely our river valley looks in the mellow light. The cold winds and rains have scattered the frosted foliage mostly, but the oaks still retain their many shaded brown leaves, and here and there a rock maple still flowers through the grey nakedness of the woods. It is still as a dream -- one of those days which seem specially sent to assure us of the love of God.

    (Quoted from page 277 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg. Xlibris, 2001)
    For a brief biography of John Greenleaf Whittier, click here. For images of or relating to John Greenleaf Whittier, click here.