Caroline Matilda Kirkland

Holidays Abroad: Or Europe From the West

[Publisher not known] 1849. 2 vols.

By far the most magnificent thing in London, is her chain of parks, unequalled in the world. The taste, the liberality, the wealth displayed in the appropriation of these vast areas in the midst of the great metropolis, is surprising, and certainly gives the stranger a higher idea of the grandeur of London than any other single thing about it

The author was well established as a writer and educator when she set off on from New York on her tour. A strong supporter of social reform, she felt that the best thing about the parks was the creation of vast green spaces for 'the public health and happiness of the people', in the words of her friend and fellow reformer, William Cullen Bryant. Addressing her fellow Americans, she 'pleads earnestly' for the same facilities in her own country: 'wide, generous fields, clean walks, and soft-flowing water, for the use of such as own nothing but hands and hearts.'

Regent's Park was 'magnificent', she concluded, 'dotted with handsome residences' whose occupants 'enjoy the advantages of both country and city life...but the true charm lies in the trees, the grass, the water, the quiet, and the human faces one meets in traversing the walks. Nothing we saw in London made our own dear city of New York seem so poor in comparison as these parks!'