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Difference between revisions of "Grove"

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==History==
 
==History==
  
The term grove referred to both natural and planted arrangements of trees, as indicated by Noah Webster’s definition of 1828. American gardeners such as Bernard M’Mahon (1806) realized the potential of indigenous vegetation and simply thinned existing trees to create so-called “natural” groves. Trees could also be planted where none existed to create “artificial” groves. Whether natural or artificial, groves of trees were an important element in the ornamental landscape, serving aesthetic and agricultural purposes. As Samuel Deane explained in the ''New-England Farmer'' (1790), groves could provide shade and windbreaks as well as syrup, firewood, and fruit. As a formal element, groves defined borders of gardens, created backdrops, and, as seen in the sketch of St. Augustine’s orange grove [Fig. 1], offered sites for collecting specific plants.  
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[[File:0605.jpg|thumb|left|550 px|Fig. 1, Lieut. Birch, ''Plan of St. Augustine, Fla.'', 1819.]]
 +
The term grove referred to both natural and planted arrangements of trees, as indicated by [[Noah Webster]]’s definition of 1828. American gardeners such as [[Bernard M’Mahon]] (1806) realized the potential of indigenous vegetation and simply thinned existing trees to create so-called “natural” groves. Trees could also be planted where none existed to create “artificial” groves. Whether natural or artificial, groves of trees were an important element in the ornamental landscape, serving aesthetic and agricultural purposes. As Samuel Deane explained in the ''New-England Farmer'' (1790), groves could provide shade and windbreaks as well as syrup, firewood, and fruit. As a formal element, groves defined [[border]]s of gardens, created backdrops, and, as seen in the sketch of St. Augustine’s orange grove [Fig. 1], offered sites for collecting specific plants.  
  
While generally composed of trees, groves sometimes included shrubs and flowers. These plants were also found in woods, shrubberies, and wildernesses, thus blurring the lines of distinctions between these features—several treatise writers and lexicographers defined groves, for example, as small woods. The overlapping and indistinct uses of the terms “grove,” “wilderness,” and “shrubbery” are exemplified by George  
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While generally composed of trees, groves sometimes included [[shrub]]s and flowers. These plants were also found in [[wood]]s, [[shrubberies]], and [[wilderness]]es, thus blurring the lines of distinctions between these features—several treatise writers and lexicographers defined groves, for example, as small [[wood]]s. The overlapping and indistinct uses of the terms “grove,” “[[wilderness]],” and “[[shrubbery]]” are exemplified by George Washington’s notations on the garden at [[Mount Vernon]]. In 1782, he wrote that he would immediately plant groups of “[[shrub]]s and ornamental trees,” and decide later which constituted “the grove and which the [[wilderness]],” implying that the grove would ultimately be the less thickly planted of the two. To add to the confusion, Washington on another occasion referred to the arrangement of trees and [[shrub]]s just south of his house as both a grove and a [[shrubbery]]. Texts from the 19th century mentioned [[shrub]]s and flowers in groves less frequently, because these types of plants were increasingly associated with [[shrubberies]]. Thus, as time passed, the distinction between the terms became more clearly drawn.  
Washington’s notations on the garden at Mount Vernon. In 1782, he wrote that he would immediately plant groups of “shrubs and ornamental trees,” and decide later which constituted “the grove and which the wilderness,” implying that the grove would ultimately be the less thickly planted of the two. To add to the confusion, Washington on another occasion referred to the arrangement of trees and shrubs just south of his house as both a grove and a shrubbery. Nineteenth-century texts mentioned shrubs and flowers in groves less frequently, because these types of plants were increasingly associated with shrubberies (see Shrubbery). Thus, as time passed, the distinction between the terms became more clearly drawn.  
 
  
When attempting to distinguish groves from other features that employed trees (particularly woods and clumps), treatise writers often focused on the question of whether groves should contain undergrowth. Various opinions emerged. Batty Langley argued in ''New Principles of Gardening'' (1728) for the inclusion of flowering shrubs with evergreens and deciduous trees. Thomas Whately, however, in ''Observations of Modern Gardening'' (1770), believed that a grove consisted of trees without undergrowth in contrast to woods or clumps, which did contain undergrowth. Philip Miller, in ''The Gardeners Dictionary'' (1754), considered undergrowth as one factor that distinguished a “closed” grove from an “open” one. The “open” form of the feature was made by planting large trees at a distance that permitted tree tops to knit together to create a shady canopy for the walks below. The “closed” type was composed of a denser planting of trees, shrubs, and flowers that could be arranged in figures cut through and circumscribed by walks.  
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When attempting to distinguish groves from other features that employed trees (particularly [[wood]]s and [[clump]]s), treatise writers often focused on the question of whether groves should contain undergrowth. Various opinions emerged. Batty Langley argued in ''New Principles of Gardening'' (1728) for the inclusion of flowering [[shrub]]s with evergreens and deciduous trees. Thomas Whately, however, in ''Observations of Modern Gardening'' (1770), believed that a grove consisted of trees without undergrowth in contrast to [[wood]]s or [[clump]]s, which did contain undergrowth. Philip Miller, in ''The Gardeners Dictionary'' (1754), considered undergrowth as one factor that distinguished a “closed” grove from an “open” one. The “open” form of the feature was made by planting large trees at a distance that permitted tree tops to knit together to create a shady canopy for the [[walk]]s below. The “closed” type was composed of a denser planting of trees, [[shrub]]s, and flowers that could be arranged in figures cut through and circumscribed by [[walk]]s.  
  
The appellations “open” and “closed,” however, were not common in American discourse, despite Noah Webster’s inclusion of such distinctions in his definition. Although these adjectives were not employed to a significant degree, groves fitting these characteristics can be identified. Thomas Jefferson, in his 1807 account of Monticello, described his intention to trim the lower limbs of the trees in his grove, composed of a mixture of hardwoods and evergreens, “so as to give the appearance of open ground,” suggesting an “open” grove [Fig. 2]. Eliza Lucas Pinckney, in 1742, evoked the sense of a “closed” grove when she delineated her collection of trees and flowers. Likewise, in 1776 George Washington suggested a similar type of grove for Mount Vernon, which he described as an arrangement of flowering trees and evergreens underplanted with flowering shrubs.  
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[[File:0969.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 2, [[Thomas Jefferson]], Plan of the grounds at [[Monticello]], 1806.]]
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[[File:2282.jpg|thumb|Fig. 3, [[Pierre Pharoux]], Plan of Esperanza, NY [detail], n.d. A “Public Grove” is situated on either side of the “[[Common]] Ground.”]]
  
Washington’s account of this “closed” grove also provides a significant clue as to the arrangement of plants. In his 1776 letter to Lund Washington, he specified that the trees “be Planted without any order or regularity,” an aesthetic in keeping with the recommendations of Langley, whose treatises were owned by Washington. The texts of Langley and Miller exemplify the gradual shift away from formal or rectilinear arrangements of trees toward more irregular or “natural” designs. Seventeenth-century groves might be planted in geometrical, or otherwise such patterned figures as “the star, the direct Cross, St. Andrew’s Cross,” described by A.-J. Dézallier d’Argenville (1712). By contrast, Langley insisted that groves be planted with “regular Irregularity; not planting them . . . with their Trees in straight Lines ranging every Way, but in a rural Manner, as if they had receiv’d their Situation from Nature itself.” In contrast to authors of earlier treatises, nineteenth-century American writers, including Samuel Deane (1790), Bernard M’Mahon (1806) and the anonymous author of the ''New England Farmer'' (1828), advocated regular arrangements. Few if any signs, however, indicate that Americans made “closed” groves in geometrical figures, such as those described in James. Pierre Pharoux’s unexecuted plans for the new town Sperenza, N.Y. [Fig. 3], and for Baron von Steuben’s estate in Mohawk Valley, N.Y. [Fig. 4], are rare exceptions.  
+
The appellations “open” and “closed,” however, were not common in American discourse, despite [[Noah Webster|Noah Webster's]] inclusion of such distinctions in his definition. Although these adjectives were not employed to a significant degree, groves fitting these characteristics can be identified. [[Thomas Jefferson]], in his 1807 account of [[Monticello]], described his intention to trim the lower limbs of the trees in his grove, composed of a mixture of hardwoods and evergreens, “so as to give the appearance of open ground,” suggesting an “open” grove [Fig. 2]. [[Eliza Lucas Pinckney]], in 1742, evoked the sense of a “closed” grove when she delineated her collection of trees and flowers. Likewise, in 1776 George Washington suggested a similar type of grove for [[Mount Vernon]], which he described as an arrangement of flowering trees and evergreens underplanted with flowering [[shrub]]s.  
  
In either the regular or irregular arrangement, groves were often designed to accommodate garden structures or decorative elements. William Bentley (1791), for example, called attention to the pond with statuary found in the midst of the grove at Pleasant Hill, Joseph Barrell’s estate in Charlestown, Mass.; Margaret Bayard Smith (1809) recorded that Jefferson intended to place a monument to a friend in the midst of a grove at Monticello. William Russell Birch situated a Gothic chapel in the grove at Springland [Fig. 5].  
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[[File:2255.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 4, [[Pierre Pharoux]], “General Map of the honorable Wm. frederic Baron of Steuben’s Mannor”, c. 1793.]]
 +
Washington’s account of this “closed” grove also provides a significant clue as to the arrangement of plants. In his 1776 letter to Lund Washington, he specified that the trees “be Planted without any order or regularity,” an aesthetic in keeping with the recommendations of Langley, whose treatises were owned by Washington. The texts of Langley and Miller exemplify the gradual shift away from formal or rectilinear arrangements of trees toward more irregular or “[[natural style|natural]]” designs. 17th-century groves might be planted in [[Geometric_style|geometrical]], or otherwise such patterned figures as “the star, the direct Cross, St. Andrew’s Cross,” described by A.-J. Dézallier d’Argenville (1712). By contrast, |Langley insisted that groves be planted with “regular Irregularity; not planting them. . . with their Trees in straight Lines ranging every Way, but in a rural Manner, as if they had receiv’d their Situation from Nature itself.” In contrast to authors of earlier treatises, 19th-century American writers, including Samuel Deane (1790), [[Bernard M’Mahon]] (1806) and the anonymous author of the ''New England Farmer'' (1828), advocated regular arrangements. Few if any signs, however, indicate that Americans made “closed” groves in [[Geometric_style|geometrical]] figures, such as those described in James. [[Pierre Pharoux]]’s unexecuted plans for the new town Esperanza, New York [Fig. 3], and for Baron von Steuben’s estate in Mohawk Valley, New York [Fig. 4], are rare exceptions.  
  
In addition to providing settings for decorative objects, groves sometimes displayed rare or unusual tree specimens. At Mount Vernon, Washington contrasted his northerngrove, to be made up entirely of locust trees, with his southern grove, to be planted with “clever,” “curious,” and “ornamental” trees and shrubs. At the Woodlands, William Hamilton also filled his groves with rare ornamental trees.  
+
[[File:0730.jpg|thumb|Fig. 5, William Russell Birch, “The Grove in Springland,” before 1805.]]
  
Groves provided shade and settings for walks that linked buildings in a unified composition. They sheltered or highlighted important architectural features. Groves of evergreens or shade trees were well suited for graves and church settings because of the associations with perpetual life. Pinckney and Charles Willson Peale both spoke of the aura of solemnity found in the deep shade and quiet of their respective groves. Alexander Hamilton (1744) called the “darkened and shaded” grove very “romantick.” Architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe depicted a temple deep in a grove, a scene that recalled idealized landscapes associated with the classical past [Fig. 6]. Funerary associations of the grove, dating back to antiquity, made the feature an especially appropriate setting for commemorative monuments and landscape cemeteries.  
+
In either the regular or irregular arrangement, groves were often designed to accommodate garden structures or decorative elements. William Bentley (1791), for example, called attention to the [[pond]] with [[Statue|statuary]] found in the midst of the grove at Pleasant Hill, Joseph Barrell’s estate in Charlestown, Massachusetts; Margaret Bayard Smith (1809) recorded that [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]] intended to place a monument to a friend in the midst of a grove at [[Monticello]]. William Russell Birch situated a Gothic chapel in the grove at Springland [Fig. 5].  
  
Groves also connoted cultivation and improvement. They were frequently featured in images, such as Christian Remick’s ''Prospective View of part of the Commons'' (1768) [Fig. 7].In Timothy Dwight’s descriptions of the cultivated American landscape, for example, he repeatedly called attention to groves as marking the transition from the wilder or unplanned landscape to the “improved” or worked landscape. Even A. J. Downing, who avoided the term in his treatise, found it useful in describing his ideal park for the city of New York in 1851.  
+
In addition to providing settings for decorative objects, groves sometimes displayed rare or unusual tree specimens. At [[Mount Vernon]], Washington contrasted his northern grove, to be made up entirely of locust trees, with his southern grove, to be planted with “clever,” “curious,” and “ornamental” trees and [[shrub]]s. At [[The Woodlands]], [[William Hamilton]] also filled his groves with rare ornamental trees.  
  
-- ''Anne L. Helmreich''
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[[File:0059.jpg|thumb|left|Fig. 6, [[Benjamin Henry Latrobe]], Spring house—elevation and plan, from “Buildings Erected or Proposed to be Built in Virginia,” 1795–99.]]
 +
[[File:0134.jpg|thumb|Fig. 7, Christian Remick, ''A Prospective [[View]] of part of the [[Common]]s'', c. 1768.]]
 +
Groves provided shade and settings for [[walk]]s that linked buildings in a unified composition. They sheltered or highlighted important architectural features. Groves of evergreens or shade trees were well suited for graves and church settings because of the associations with perpetual life. [[Eliza Lucas Pinckney|Pinckney]] and [[Charles Willson Peale]] both spoke of the aura of solemnity found in the deep shade and quiet of their respective groves. Alexander Hamilton (1744) called the “darkened and shaded” grove very “romantick.” Architect [[Benjamin Henry Latrobe]] depicted a [[temple]] deep in a grove, a scene that recalled idealized landscapes associated with the classical past [Fig. 6]. Funerary associations of the grove, dating back to antiquity, made the feature an especially appropriate setting for commemorative monuments and landscape [[cemeteries]].
  
==Texts==
+
Groves also connoted cultivation and improvement. They were frequently featured in images, such as Christian Remick’s ''Prospective View of part of the Commons'' (1768) [Fig. 7]. In [[Timothy Dwight]]’s descriptions of the cultivated American landscape, for example, he repeatedly called attention to groves as marking the transition from the wilder or unplanned landscape to the “improved” or worked landscape. Even [[A. J. Downing]], who avoided the term in his treatise, found it useful in describing his ideal [[park]] for the city of New York in 1851.
  
===Usage===
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—''Anne L. Helmreich''
  
Smith, John, 1612, describing Native American
+
<hr>
life in America (quoted in Billings 1975: 215)
 
  
“Some times from 2 to 100 of these houses
+
==Texts==
[are] togither [sic], or but a little separated by
+
===Usage===
groves of trees. Neare their habitations is [a] little
+
*Smith, John, 1612, describing Native American life in America (quoted in Billings 1975: 215)<ref>Warren M. Billings, ed., ''The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606–1689'' (Williamsburg, VA: Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, Virginia, 1975), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/S2TZJIN9 view on Zotero].</ref>
small wood, or old trees on the ground, by reason
 
of their burning of them for fire.
 
  
Pinckney, Eliza Lucas, 1742, describing Wappoo
+
:“Some times from 2 to 100 of these houses [are] togither [''sic''], or but a little separated by '''groves''' of trees. Neare their habitations is [a] little small [[wood]], or old trees on the ground, by reason of their burning of them for fire.
Plantation, property of Eliza Lucas Pinckney,
 
Charleston, S.C. (1972: 36)
 
  
“You may wonder how I could in this gay season
 
think of planting a Cedar grove, which rather
 
reflects an Autumnal gloom and solemnity than
 
the freshness and gayty of spring. But so it is. I
 
have begun it last week and intend to make it an
 
Emblem not of a lady, but of a compliment which
 
your good Aunt was pleased to make to the person
 
her partiality has made happy by giving her a place
 
in her esteem and friendship. I intend then to connect
 
in my grove the solemnity (not the solidity)
 
of summer or autumn with the cheerfulness and
 
pleasures of spring, for it shall be filled with all
 
kind of flowers, as well wild as Garden flowers,
 
with seats of Camomoil and here and there a fruit
 
tree—oranges, nectrons, Plumbs, &c., &c.”
 
  
Norris, Isaac, 22 June 1743, describing Fairhill,  
+
*[[Pinckney, Eliza Lucas]], 1742, describing Wappoo Plantation, property of [[Eliza Lucas Pinckney]], Charleston, SC (1972: 36)<ref>Eliza Lucas Pinckney, ''The Letterbook of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, 1739–1762'', ed. Elise Pinckney (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1972), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/EBQQ2RAU view on Zotero].</ref>
seat of Isaac Norris, near Philadelphia, Pa. (Historical
 
Society of Pennsylvania, Norris Letter
 
Book, 1719–56)
 
  
“opening my woods into groves, enlarging my
+
:“You may wonder how I could in this gay season think of planting a Cedar '''grove''', which rather reflects an Autumnal gloom and solemnity than the freshness and gayty of spring. But so it is. I have begun it last week and intend to make it an Emblem not of a lady, but of a compliment which your good Aunt was pleased to make to the person her partiality has made happy by giving her a place in her esteem and friendship. I intend then to connect in my '''grove''' the solemnity (not the solidity) of summer or autumn with the cheerfulness and pleasures of spring, for it shall be filled with all kind of flowers, as well wild as Garden flowers, with seats of Camomoil and here and there a fruit tree—oranges, nectrons, Plumbs, &c., &c.”
fishponds and beautifying my springs.”  
 
  
Moore, Francis, 1744, describing the Trustees’
 
Garden, Savannah, Ga. (quoted in Marye 1933: 15)
 
  
“On the North-part of the Garden is left standing
+
*Norris, Isaac, 22 June 1743, describing Fairhill, seat of Isaac Norris, near Philadelphia, PA (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Norris Letter Book, 1719–56)
a Grove of Part of the old Wood as it was
+
:“. . . opening my [[wood]]s into '''groves''', enlarging my fishponds and beautifying my springs.”
before the arrival of the Colony there. The Trees
 
in the Grove are mostly Bay, Sassafras, Evergreen
 
Oak, Pellitory, Hickary [sic], American Ash, and  
 
the Laurel Tulip.”  
 
  
Hamilton, Alexander, 14 July 1744, describing
 
a house in Rhode Island (1948: 98)
 
  
“we passed by an old fashioned wooden house
+
*Moore, Francis, 1744, describing the [[Trustees’ Garden]], Savannah, GA (quoted in Marye 1933: 15)<ref>Florence (Nisbet) Marye and Philip Thornton Marye, ''Garden History of Georgia, 1733–1933'', ed. Hattie C. Rainwater and Loraine M. Cooney (Atlanta: Peachtree Garden Club, 1933), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/GNC4U42D view on Zotero].</ref>
att the end of a lane, darkened and shaded over
+
:“On the North-part of the Garden is left standing a '''Grove''' of Part of the old [[Wood]] as it was before the arrival of the Colony there. The Trees in the '''Grove''' are mostly Bay, Sassafras, Evergreen Oak, Pellitory, Hickary [''sic''], American Ash, and the Laurel Tulip.”
with a thick grove of tall trees. This appeared to
 
me very romantick and brought into my mind
 
some romantick descriptions of rural scenes in
 
Spencer’s Fairy Queen.”  
 
  
Washington, George, 19 August 1776, in a letter
 
to Lund Washington, describing Mount Vernon,
 
plantation of George Washington, Fairfax
 
County, Va. (quoted in Riley 1989: 7)
 
  
“Plant Trees in the room of all dead ones in
+
*Hamilton, Alexander, July 14, 1744, describing a house in Rhode Island (1948: 98)<ref>Alexander Hamilton, ''Gentleman’s Progress: The Itinerarium of Dr. Alexander Hamilton, 1744'', ed. Carl Bridenbaugh (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1948), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/EWWJNEUN view on Zotero].</ref>
proper time this Fall. and as I mean to have groves
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:“. . . we passed by an old fashioned wooden house att the end of a lane, darkened and shaded over with a thick '''grove''' of tall trees. This appeared to me very romantick and brought into my mind some romantick descriptions of rural scenes in Spencer’s Fairy Queen.”
of Trees at each end of the dwelling House, that at
 
the South end to range in a line from the South
 
  
grove
 
  
East Corner to Colo. Fairfax’s, extending as low as  
+
*Washington, George, August 19, 1776, in a letter to Lund Washington, describing [[Mount Vernon]], [[plantation]] of George Washington, Fairfax County, VA (quoted in Riley 1989: 7)<ref>John P. Riley, ''The Icehouses and Their Operations at Mount Vernon'' (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, 1989), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/76PVTIZM view on Zotero].</ref>
another line from the Stable to the dry Well, and  
+
:“Plant Trees in the room of all dead ones in proper time this Fall. and as I mean to have '''groves''' of Trees at each end of the dwelling House, that at the South end to range in a line from the South East Corner to Colo. Fairfax’s, extending as low as another line from the Stable to the dry Well, and towards the Coach House . . . from the No. Et. Corner of the other end of the House to range so as to show the Barn &ca. in the Neck. . . these Trees to be Planted without any order or regularity (but pretty thick, as they can at any time be thin’d) and to consist that at the North end, of locusts altogether. and that at the South, of all the clever kind of Trees (especially flowering ones) that can be got, such as Crab apple, Poplar, Dogwood, Sasafras, Laurel, Willow (especially yellow and Weeping Willow, twigs of which may be got from Philadelphia) and many others which I do not recollect at present; those to be interspersed here and there with ever greens such as Holly, Pine, and Cedar, also Ivy; to these may be added the Wild flowering [[Shrub]]s of the larger kind, such as the fringe Trees and several other kinds that might be mentioned.”
towards the Coach House . . . from the No. Et.  
 
Corner of the other end of the House to range so  
 
as to show the Barn &ca. in the Neck . . . these  
 
Trees to be Planted without any order or regularity  
 
(but pretty thick, as they can at any time be  
 
thin’d) and to consist that at the North end, of  
 
locusts altogether. and that at the South, of all the  
 
clever kind of Trees (especially flowering ones)  
 
that can be got, such as Crab apple, Poplar, Dogwood,  
 
Sasafras, Laurel, Willow (especially yellow  
 
and Weeping Willow, twigs of which may be got  
 
from Philadelphia) and many others which I do  
 
not recollect at present; those to be interspersed  
 
here and there with ever greens such as Holly,  
 
Pine, and Cedar, also Ivy; to these may be added  
 
the Wild flowering Shrubs of the larger kind, such  
 
as the fringe Trees and several other kinds that  
 
might be mentioned.”  
 
  
Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 15 July 1782, describing the
 
country seat of John Dickinsen, near Philadelphia,
 
Pa. (quoted in Caemmerer 1950: 87)
 
  
“The ground contiguous to this shed was cut  
+
*Rush, Dr. Benjamin, July 15, 1782, describing the country [[seat]] of John Dickinsen, near Philadelphia, PA (quoted in Caemmerer 1950: 87)<ref>H. Paul Caemmerer, ''The Life of Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, Planner of the City Beautiful, The City of Washington'' (Washington, DC: National Republic Publishing Company, 1950), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/PHWTAERT view on Zotero].</ref>
into beautiful walks and divided with cedar and  
+
:“The ground contiguous to this shed was cut into beautiful [[walk]]s and divided with cedar and pine branches into artificial '''groves'''. The whole, both the buildings and [[walk]]s, were accommodated with [[seat]]s.”
pine branches into artificial groves. The whole,  
 
both the buildings and walks, were accommodated  
 
with seats.”  
 
  
Washington, George, 25 December 1782,
 
  
describing Mount Vernon, plantation of George  
+
*Washington, George, December 25, 1782, describing [[Mount Vernon]], [[plantation]] of George Washington, Fairfax County, VA (quoted in Johnson 1953: 87–88)<ref>Gerald W. Johnson, ''Mount Vernon: The Story of a Shrine'' (New York: Random House, 1953), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/F2JS5DHZ view on Zotero].</ref>
Washington, Fairfax County, Va. (quoted in Johnson  
+
:“I wish that the afore-mentioned [[shrub]]s and ornamental and curious trees may be planted at both ends that I may determine hereafter from circumstances and appearances which shall be the '''grove''' and which the [[wilderness]]. It is easy to extirpate Trees from any spot but time only can bring them to maturity.”
1953: 87–88)  
 
  
“I wish that the afore-mentioned shrubs and
 
ornamental and curious trees may be planted at
 
both ends that I may determine hereafter from
 
circumstances and appearances which shall be the
 
grove and which the wilderness. It is easy to extirpate
 
Trees from any spot but time only can bring
 
them to maturity.”
 
  
Shippen, Thomas Lee, 31 December 1783,  
+
[[File:0036.jpg|thumb|Fig. 8, Thomas Lee Shippen, Plan of Westover, 1783. The grove is marked at “&c” at upper left quadrant.]]
 +
*Shippen, Thomas Lee, December 31, 1783, describing Westover, seat of William Byrd III, on the James River, VA (1952: n.p.)<ref>Thomas Lee Shippen, ''Westover Described in 1783: A Letter and Drawing Sent by Thomas Lee Shippen, Student of Law in Williamsburg, to His Parents in Philadelphia'' (Richmond, VA: William Byrd Press, 1952), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/3IWWPMJ5 view on Zotero].</ref>
 +
:“The crooked line markd x [on the accompanying drawing] shews you where the garden is which is very large and exceedingly beautiful indeed. The one opposite to it &c is the place where there is a pretty '''grove''' neatly kept, from which the walk thro’ one of the pretty [[gate]]s markd g leads you to the improved grounds before the house.” [Fig. 8]
  
describing Westover, seat of William Byrd III, on
 
the James River, Va. (1952: n.p.)
 
  
“The crooked line markd x [on the accompanying
+
*Washington, George, 1785 and 1786, describing [[Mount Vernon]], [[plantation]] of George Washington, Fairfax County, VA (Jackson and Twohig, eds., 1978: 4:99, 107, 304)<ref>George Washington, ''The Diaries of George Washington'', ed. Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, 6 vols (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1978), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/9ZIIR3FT view on Zotero].</ref>
drawing] shews you where the garden is
+
:“[March 7, 1785] Planted all my Cedars, all my Papaw, and two Honey locust Trees in my [[Shrubberies]] and two of the latter in my '''groves'''—one at each (side) of the House and a large Holly tree on the Point going to the Sein landing. . .
which is very large and exceedingly beautiful
+
:“Finished Plowing the Ground adjoining the Pine '''Grove''', designed for Clover & Orchard grass Seed. . .
indeed. The one opposite to it &c is the place
+
:“[March 24, 1785] Finding the Trees round the [[Walk]]s in my wildernesses rather too thin I doubled them by putting (other Pine) trees between each.
where there is a pretty grove neatly kept, from
+
:“Laid off the [[Walk]]s in my '''Groves''', at each end of the House. . .
which the walk thro’ one of the pretty gates markd
+
:“[April 6, 1786] Transplanted 46 of the large Magnolio of So. Carolina from the box brought by G. A. Washington last year—viz.—6 at the head of each of the Serpentine [[Walk]]s next the Circle—26 in the [[Shrubbery]] or '''grove''' at the South end of the House & 8 in that at the No. end. The ground was so wet, more could not at this time be planted there.
g leads you to the improved grounds before the  
 
house.[Fig. 8]
 
  
Washington, George, 1785 and 1786, describing
 
Mount Vernon, plantation of George Washington,
 
Fairfax County, Va. (Jackson and Twohig,
 
eds., 1978: 4:99, 107, 304)
 
  
[7 March 1785] Planted all my Cedars, all my
+
*[[Manasseh Cutler|Cutler, Manasseh]], July 13, 1787, describing the [[State House Yard]], Philadelphia, PA (1987: 1:262)<ref name="Cutler">William Parker Cutler, ''Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D.'' (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1987), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/3PBNT7H9 view on Zotero].
Papaw, and two Honey locust Trees in my Shrubberies
+
</ref>
and two of the latter in my groves—one at
+
:“It was so lately laid out in its present form that it has not assumed that air of grandeur which time will give it. The trees are yet small, but most judiciously arranged. The artificial [[mound]]s of earth, and depressions, and small '''groves''' in the [[square]]s have a most delightful effect.
each (side) of the House and a large Holly tree on  
 
the Point going to the Sein landing. . . .
 
  
“Finished Plowing the Ground adjoining the
 
Pine Grove, designed for Clover & Orchard grass
 
Seed. . . .
 
  
[24 March 1785] Finding the Trees round the  
+
*[[Manasseh Cutler|Cutler, Manasseh]], July 14, 1787, describing [[Gray's Garden|Gray’s Tavern]], Philadelphia, PA (1987: 1:275–77)<ref name="Cutler"></ref>
Walks in my wildernesses rather too thin I doubled
+
:“As we were walking on the northern side of the Garden, upon a beautiful glacis, we found ourselves on the borders of a '''grove''' of wood and upon the brow of a steep hill. . . At a distance, we could just see three very high arched [[bridge]]s, one beyond the other. . . We saw them through the '''grove''', the branches of the trees partly concealing them, which produced the more romantic and delightful effect. As we advanced on the brow of this hill, we observed a small foot-path, which led by several windings into the '''grove'''. We followed it; and though we saw that it was the work of art, yet it was a most happy imitation of nature. It conducted us along the declivity of the hill, which on every side was strewed with flowers in the most artless manner, and evidently seemed to be the bounty of nature without the aid of human care. At length we seemed to be lost in the [[wood]]s, but saw in the distance an antique building, to which our path led us. . . At this [[hermitage]] we came into a spacious graveled [[walk]], which directed its course further along the '''grove''', which was tall [[wood]] interspersed with close thickets of different growth. As we advanced, we found our gravel [[walk]] dividing itself into numerous branches, leading into different parts of the '''grove'''. We directed our course nearly north, though some of our company turned into the other [[walk]]s, but were soon out of sight, and thought proper to return and follow us. We at length came to a considerable [[eminence]], which was adorned with an infinite variety of [[bed]]s of flowers and artificial '''groves''' of flowering [[shrub]]s. On the further side of the eminence was a [[fence]], beyond which we perceived an extensive but narrow opening. When we came to the [[fence]], we were delightfully astonished with the [[view]] of one of the finest [[cascade]]s in America. . . The distance we judged to be about a quarter of a mile, which being seen through the narrow opening in the tall '''grove''', and the fine mist that rose incessantly from the rocks below, had a most delightful effect.
them by putting (other Pine) trees between
 
each.  
 
  
“Laid off the Walks in my Groves, at each end
 
of the House. . . .
 
  
“[6 April 1786] Transplanted 46 of the large
+
*Adams, Abigail, November 21, 1790, describing Bush Hill, estate of Lt. Gov. James Hamilton, near Philadelphia, PA (1841: 2:207)<ref>Abigail Adams, ''Letters of Mrs. Adams, the Wife of John Adams'', ed. Charles Francis Adams, 3rd ed. (Boston: C. C. Little and J. Brown, 1841), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/5USKR5MS view on Zotero].</ref>
Magnolio of So. Carolina from the box brought by
+
:“Bush Hill, as it is called, though by the way there remains neither bush nor [[shrub]] upon it, and very few trees, except the pine '''grove''' behind it,— yet Bush Hill is a very beautiful place.”
  
G. A. Washington last year—viz.—6 at the head of
 
each of the Serpentine Walks next the Circle—26
 
in the Shrubbery or grove at the South end of the
 
House & 8 in that at the No. end. The ground was
 
so wet, more could not at this time be planted
 
there.”
 
Cutler, Rev. Manasseh, 13 July 1787, describing
 
the State House Yard, Philadelphia, Pa. (1987:
 
1:262)
 
  
“It was so lately laid out in its present form
+
*[[Bartram, William]], 1791, describing St. Simon’s Island, GA (1928: 72–73)<ref name="Bartram">William Bartram, ''Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida'', ed. Mark Van Doren (New York: Dover, 1928), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/88NA3B2P view on Zotero].</ref>
that it has not assumed that air of grandeur which
+
:“This delightful habitation was situated in the midst of a spacious '''grove''' of Live Oaks and Palms, near the strand of the bay, commanding a [[view]] of the inlet. A cool area surrounded the low but convenient buildings, from whence, through the '''groves''', was a spacious [[avenue]] into the island, terminated by a large savanna. . .
time will give it. The trees are yet small, but most
+
:“Our rural table was spread under the shadow of Oaks, Palms, and Sweet Bays, fanned by the lively salubrious breezes wafted from the spicy '''groves'''. Our music was the responsive love-lays of the painted nonpareil, and the alert and gay mock-bird; whilst the brilliant humming-bird darted through the flowery '''groves''', suspended in air, and drank nectar from the flowers of the yellow Jasmine, Lonicera, Andromeda, and sweet Azalea.”
judiciously arranged. The artificial mounds of  
 
earth, and depressions, and small groves in the  
 
squares have a most delightful effect.”  
 
  
Cutler, Rev. Manasseh, 14 July 1787, describing
 
Gray’s Tavern, Philadelphia, Pa. (1987: 1:275–77)
 
  
“As we were walking on the northern side of
+
*[[Bartram, William]], 1791, describing an Indian village in Florida (1928: 96)<ref name="Bartram"></ref>
the Garden, upon a beautiful glacis, we found ourselves
+
:“There was a large Orange '''grove''' at the upper end of their village; the trees were large, carefully pruned, and the ground under them clean, open, and airy.
on the borders of a grove of wood and upon
 
the brow of a steep hill. . . . At a distance, we could
 
just see three very high arched bridges, one
 
beyond the other. . . . We saw them through the
 
grove, the branches of the trees partly concealing
 
them, which produced the more romantic and
 
delightful effect. As we advanced on the brow of
 
this hill, we observed a small foot-path, which led
 
by several windings into the grove. We followed it;
 
and though we saw that it was the work of art, yet
 
it was a most happy imitation of nature. It conducted
 
us along the declivity of the hill, which on
 
every side was strewed with flowers in the most
 
artless manner, and evidently seemed to be the
 
bounty of nature without the aid of human care.
 
At length we seemed to be lost in the woods, but
 
saw in the distance an antique building, to which
 
our path led us. . . . At this hermitage we came
 
into a spacious graveled walk, which directed its
 
course further along the grove, which was tall
 
wood interspersed with close thickets of different
 
growth. As we advanced, we found our gravel walk
 
dividing itself into numerous branches, leading
 
into different parts of the grove. We directed our
 
course nearly north, though some of our company
 
turned into the other walks, but were soon out of
 
  
sight, and thought proper to return and follow us.
 
We at length came to a considerable eminence,
 
which was adorned with an infinite variety of beds
 
of flowers and artificial groves of flowering
 
shrubs. On the further side of the eminence was a
 
fence, beyond which we perceived an extensive
 
but narrow opening. When we came to the fence,
 
we were delightfully astonished with the view of
 
one of the finest cascades in America. . . . The distance
 
we judged to be about a quarter of a mile,
 
which being seen through the narrow opening in
 
the tall grove, and the fine mist that rose incessantly
 
from the rocks below, had a most delightful
 
effect.”
 
  
Adams, Abigail, 21 November 1790, describing  
+
[[File:0722.jpg|thumb|Fig. 9, Anonymous, “Barrell Farm,” Pleasant Hill, 1817. A “Poplar Grove” was located on axis with main house, between the fish pond on the Barrell property and the river.]]
Bush Hill, estate of Lt. Gov. James Hamilton, near
+
*Bentley, William, June 12, 1791, describing Pleasant Hill, seat of Joseph Barrell, Charlestown, MA (1962: 1:264)<ref>William Bentley, ''The Diary of William Bentley, D.D., Pastor of the East Church, Salem, Massachusetts'' (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1962), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/B63ABACF view on Zotero].</ref>
Philadelphia, Pa. (1841: 2:207)
 
  
“Bush Hill, as it is called, though by the way
+
:“[June] 12. Was politely received at dinner by Mr Barrell, & family, who shewed me his large & elegant arrangements for amusement, & philosophic experiments. . . His Garden is beyond any example I have seen. A young '''grove''' is growing in the back ground, in the middle of which is a [[pond]], decorated with four ships at anchor, & a marble figure in the centre. The [[Chinese manner]] is mixed with the European in the [[Summer house]] which fronts the House, below the [[Flower Garden]].” [Fig. 9]
there remains neither bush nor shrub upon it, and
 
very few trees, except the pine grove behind it,
 
yet Bush Hill is a very beautiful place.”  
 
  
Bartram, William, 1791, describing St. Simon’s
 
Island, Ga. (1928: 72–73)
 
  
“This delightful habitation was situated in the
+
*[[Dwight, Timothy]], 1794, describing Greenfield Hill, CT (quoted in Clarke 1993: 1:386)<ref name="Clarke">Graham Clarke, ed., ''The American Landscape: Literary Sources and Documents'', 3 vols. (East Sussex, England: Helm Information, 1993), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TRGJ9W95 view on Zotero].</ref>
midst of a spacious grove of Live Oaks and Palms,  
+
::“On yon bright plain, with beauty gay,
near the strand of the bay, commanding a view of
+
::Where waters wind, and cattle play,
the inlet. A cool area surrounded the low but convenient
+
::Where gardens, '''groves''', and [[orchard]]s bloom,  
buildings, from whence, through the  
+
::Unconscious of her coming doom,  
groves, was a spacious avenue into the island, terminated
+
::Once Fairfield smil’d. The tidy dome,
by a large savanna. . . .  
+
::Of pleasure, and of peace, the home,
 +
::There rose; and there the glittering spire,  
 +
::Secure from sacrilegious fire.
  
“Our rural table was spread under the shadow
 
of Oaks, Palms, and Sweet Bays, fanned by the
 
lively salubrious breezes wafted from the spicy
 
groves. Our music was the responsive love-lays of
 
the painted nonpareil, and the alert and gay
 
mock-bird; whilst the brilliant humming-bird
 
darted through the flowery groves, suspended in
 
air, and drank nectar from the flowers of the yellow
 
Jasmine, Lonicera, Andromeda, and sweet
 
Azalea.”
 
  
Bartram, William, 1791, describing an Indian
+
*La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, François Alexandre-Frédéric, duc de, 1795–97, describing Norristown, PA (1800: 1:5–6)<ref>François-Alexandre-Frédéric duc de La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, ''Travels through the United States of North America, the Country of the Iroquois, and Upper Canada, in the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797'', ed. Brisson Dupont and Charles Ponges, trans. H. Newman, 2nd ed., 4 vols. (London: R. Philips, 1800), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SRMDWJ2M view on Zotero].</ref>
village in Florida (1928: 96)  
+
:“Very few of them [country houses] are without a small garden; but it is rare to observe one, that has a '''grove''' adjoining, or that is surrounded with trees; it is the custom of the country to have no [[wood]] near the houses. Customs are sometimes founded in reason, but it is difficult to conjecture the design of this practice in a country, where the heat in summer is altogether intolerable, and where the structure of the houses is designedly adapted to exclude that excessive heat.*
 +
:“*The ''reason is'', because the country was universally wooded, when the building of these houses was first begun; and in a country thus wooded, to clear the space round the dwelling-house was just as natural, as to plant round the house in a country otherwise bare of [[wood]].— ''Translator''.”
  
“There was a large Orange grove at the upper
 
end of their village; the trees were large, carefully
 
pruned, and the ground under them clean, open,
 
and airy.”
 
  
Bentley, William, 12 June 1791, describing Pleasant
+
*Anonymous, June 14, 1800, describing in the ''Federal Gazette'' the estate of Adrian Valeck, Baltimore, MD (quoted in Sarudy 1989: 136)<ref>Barbara Wells Sarudy, “Eighteenth-Century Gardens of the Chesapeake,” ''Journal of Garden History'' 9 (1989): 104–59, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/PGSNXHMJ view on Zotero].</ref>
Hill, seat of Joseph Barrell, Charlestown, Mass.  
+
:“A large garden in the highest state of cultivation, laid out in numerous and convenient [[walk]]s and [[square]]s bordered with [[espalier]]s, on which. . . the greatest variety of fruit trees, the choicest fruits from the best [[nursery|nurseries]] in this country and Europe have been attentively and successfully cultivated. . . Behind the garden in a '''grove''' and [[shrubbery]] or bosquet planted with a great variety of the finest forest trees, oderiferous & other flowering shrubs etc.”
(1962: 1:264)
 
  
“[June] 12. Was politely received at dinner by Mr
 
Barrell, & family, who shewed me his large & elegant
 
arrangements for amusement, & philosophic experiments.
 
. . . His Garden is beyond any example I
 
have seen. A young grove is growing in the back
 
ground, in the middle of which is a pond, decorated
 
with four ships at anchor, & a marble figure in the
 
centre. The Chinese manner is mixed with the European
 
in the Summer house which fronts the House,
 
below the Flower Garden.” [Fig. 9]
 
Dwight, Timothy, 1794, describing Greenfield
 
Hill, Conn. (quoted in Clarke 1993: 1:386)
 
  
“On yon bright plain, with beauty gay,  
+
*[[Manasseh Cutler|Cutler, Manasseh]], January 2, 1802, describing [[The Woodlands]], [[seat]] of [[William Hamilton]], near Philadelphia, PA (1987: 2:145)<ref name="Cutler"></ref>
Where waters wind, and cattle play,  
+
:“We then walked over the [[pleasure ground]]s in front and a little back of the house. It is formed into [[walk]]s, in every direction, with [[border]]s of flowering [[shrub]]s and trees. Between are [[lawn]]s of green grass, frequently mowed to make them convenient for walking, and at different distances numerous copse of native trees, interspersed with artificial '''groves''', which are set with trees collected from all parts of the world.”
Where gardens, groves, and orchards bloom,  
 
Unconscious of her coming doom,
 
Once Fairfield smil’d. The tidy dome,  
 
Of pleasure, and of peace, the home,  
 
There rose; and there the glittering spire,  
 
Secure from sacrilegious fire.”  
 
  
  
La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, FrançoisAlexandre-
+
*[[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson, Thomas]], 1807, describing [[Monticello]], [[plantation]] of [[Thomas Jefferson]], Charlottesville, VA (quoted in Nichols and Griswold 1978: 111)<ref>Frederick Doveton Nichols and Ralph E. Griswold, ''Thomas Jefferson, Landscape Architect'' (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/RUZC4Q3D view on Zotero].</ref>
Frédéric, duc de, 1795–97, describing
+
:“The canvas at large [of a Garden or pleasure ground] must be '''Grove''', of the largest trees, (poplar, oak, elm, maple, ash, hickory, chestnut, Linden, Weymouth pine, sycamore) trimmed very high, so as to give it the appearance of open ground, yet not so far apart but that they may cover the ground with close shade.”
Norristown, Pa. (1800: 1:5–6)  
 
  
“Very few of them [country houses] are without
 
a small garden; but it is rare to observe one,
 
that has a grove adjoining, or that is surrounded
 
with trees; it is the custom of the country to have
 
no wood near the houses. Customs are sometimes
 
founded in reason, but it is difficult to conjecture
 
the design of this practice in a country, where the
 
heat in summer is altogether intolerable, and
 
where the structure of the houses is designedly
 
adapted to exclude that excessive heat. *
 
  
* The reason is, because the country was universally
+
*[[Latrobe, Benjamin Henry]], March 17, 1807, describing the White House, Washington, DC (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)
wooded, when the building of these
+
:“In removing the ground, it would certainly be necessary to go down in front of the colonnade to the level of about one foot below the bases of the [[Column]]s but, it will certainly not deprive this colonnade of any part of its beauty to pass behind a few gentle Knolls and '''groves''' or [[Clump]]s in its front, and much expense of removing earth would be thereby saved.”
houses was first begun; and in a country thus
 
wooded, to clear the space round the dwelling-
 
house was just as natural, as to plant round the
 
house in a country otherwise bare of wood.—
 
Translator.”  
 
  
Anonymous, 14 June 1800, describing in the Federal
 
Gazette the estate of Adrian Valeck, Baltimore,
 
Md. (quoted in Sarudy 1989: 136)
 
  
“A large garden in the highest state of cultivation,  
+
*Smith, Margaret Bayard, August 1, 1809, describing [[Monticello]], [[plantation]] of [[Thomas Jefferson]], Charlottesville, VA (1906: 73)<ref>Margaret Bayard Smith, ''The First Forty Years of Washington Society'', ed. Gaillard Hunt (New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1906), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/FTDFHRFH view on Zotero].</ref>
laid out in numerous and convenient walks
+
:“As we passed the graveyard, which is about half way down the mountain, in a sequestered spot, he told me he there meant to place a small gothic building,—higher up, where a beautiful little [[mound]] was covered with a '''grove''' of trees, he meant to place a monument to his friend Wythe.”
and squares bordered with espaliers, on
 
which . . . the greatest variety of fruit trees, the
 
choicest fruits from the best nurseries in this
 
country and Europe have been attentively and
 
successfully cultivated. . . . Behind the garden in a  
 
grove and shrubbery or bosquet planted with a  
 
great variety of the finest forest trees, oderiferous
 
& other flowering shrubs etc.”  
 
  
Cutler, Rev. Manasseh, 2 January 1802,
 
  
describing the Woodlands, seat of William Hamilton,  
+
*Cuming, Fortesque, 1810, describing a seat in Pittsburgh, PA (1810: 227)<ref>Fortescue Cuming, ''Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country'' (Pittsburgh: Cramer, Spear and Eichbaum, 1810), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/EFUIGI3M view on Zotero].</ref>
near Philadelphia, Pa. (1987: 2:145)
+
:“What adds to the beauty of Mr. Tannehill’s [[seat]] is, a handsome '''grove''' of about two acres of young black oaks, northwest of his dwelling, through the middle of which runs a long frame [[bowery]], on whose end fronting the road, is seen this motto, ‘''1808, Dedicated to Virtue, Liberty, and Independence''’ Here a portion of the citizens meet on each 4th of July, to hail with joyful hearts the day that gave birth to the liberties and happiness of their country. On the opposite side of the road to the [[bowery]], is a spring issuing from the side of the hill, whose water trickles down a rich clover patch, through which is a deep hollow with several small [[cascade]]s, overhung with the willow, and fruit trees of various kinds.
  
“We then walked over the pleasure grounds in
 
front and a little back of the house. It is formed
 
into walks, in every direction, with borders of
 
flowering shrubs and trees. Between are lawns of
 
green grass, frequently mowed to make them convenient
 
for walking, and at different distances
 
numerous copse of native trees, interspersed with
 
artificial groves, which are set with trees collected
 
from all parts of the world.”
 
  
Jefferson, Thomas, 1807, describing Monticello,  
+
*[[Peale, Charles Willson]], July 22, 1810, describing [[Belfield]], estate of [[Charles Willson Peale]], Germantown, PA (Miller et al., eds., 1991: 3:51)<ref>Lillian B. Miller et al., eds., ''The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family'', vol. 3, ''The Belfield Farm Years, 1810–1820'' (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IZAKPCBG view on Zotero].</ref>
plantation of Thomas Jefferson, Charlottesville,  
+
:“I am often pleased with the solemn '''groves''' skirting [[meadow]]s in majestic silence and cool appearance.”
Va. (quoted in Nichols and Griswold 1978: 111)
 
  
“The canvas at large [of a Garden or pleasure
 
ground] must be Grove, of the largest trees,
 
(poplar, oak, elm, maple, ash, hickory, chestnut, Linden, Weymouth pine, sycamore) trimmed very
 
high, so as to give it the appearance of open
 
ground, yet not so far apart but that they may
 
cover the ground with close shade.”
 
  
Latrobe, Benjamin Henry, 17 March 1807,  
+
[[File:1051.jpg|thumb|Fig. 10, Daniel Wadsworth, “Monte Video, Approach to the House,” in Benjamin Silliman, ''Remarks Made on a Short Tour between Hartford and Quebec, in the Autumn of 1819'' (1824), pl. opp. 16.]]
 +
*Silliman, Benjamin, 1819, describing Monte Video, property of Daniel Wadsworth, Avon, CT (1824: 14–15)<ref>Benjamin Silliman, ''Remarks Made on a Short Tour between Hartford and Quebec, in the Autumn of 1819'' (New Haven, CT: S. Converse, 1824), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/B5VWTWM5 view on Zotero].</ref>
 +
:“From the boat or [[summerhouse|summer house]], several paths diverge. . . the first passes round the [[lake]], and generally out of sight of it, for a quarter of a mile, until descending a very steep bank, through a '''grove''' of evergreens, so dark as to be almost impervious to the rays of the sun, even at noon day.” [Fig. 10]
  
describing the White House, Washington, D.C.  
+
*Bryant, William Cullen, August 25, 1821, describing the Vale, estate of Theodore Lyman, Waltham, MA(1975: 108–9)<ref>William Cullen Bryant, ''The Letters of William Cullen Bryant'', ed. William Cullen II Bryant and Thomas G. Voss (New York: Fordham University Press, 1975), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/3X5XUJ6A/ view on Zotero].</ref>
(Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)  
+
:“He took me to the seat of Mr. Lyman. . . It is a perfect paradise. . . A hard rolled [[walk]], by the side of a brick [[wall]]. . . led us to a '''grove''' of young forest trees on the top of [an] [[eminence]] in the midst of which was a [[Chinese_manner|Chinese]] [[temple]].”
  
“In removing the ground, it would certainly be
 
necessary to go down in front of the colonnade to
 
the level of about one foot below the bases of the
 
Columns but, it will certainly not deprive this
 
colonnade of any part of its beauty to pass behind
 
a few gentle Knolls and groves or Clumps in its
 
front, and much expense of removing earth would
 
be thereby saved.”
 
  
Smith, Margaret Bayard, 1 August 1809,  
+
*Anonymous, April 17, 1829, “Neglected Grave Yards” (''New England Farmer'' 7: 307)<ref>“Neglected Grave Yards,” ''New England Farmer, and Horticultural Journal'' 7, no. 39 (April 17, 1829): 307, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BRBQGV63 view on Zotero].</ref>
 +
:“I wish to call your attention to the subject of repairing, clearing, and ornamenting the burial grounds of New England. These enclosures are commonly neglected by the sexton, and present to the curious traveller, an ugly collection of slate slabs, of weeds, and rank or dried grass. A small effort in each sexton or clergyman, would suffice to awaken attention, to bring to the recollection of some, and to the fancy of all, a scene which every village should present, a '''grove''' sacred to the dead and to their recollection, to calm religious conversation, and to melancholy musing—inclosed with [[shrubbery]], and evergreen, and dignified by the lofty maple, and elm, and oak, and guarded by a living [[hedge]] of hawthorn.
 +
:“Every sexton should procure some oak, elm, and locust seed, and make it a part of his vocation to scatter it for chance growth.”
  
describing Monticello, plantation of Thomas Jefferson,
 
Charlottesville, Va. (1906: 73)
 
  
“As we passed the graveyard, which is about
+
*Ingraham, Joseph Holt, 1835, describing a village near New Orleans, LA (1835: 1:81–82)<ref>Joseph Holt Ingraham, ''The South-West'', 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1835), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/DTFA8CCM view on Zotero].</ref>
half way down the mountain, in a sequestered
+
:“On the left and diagonally from the dwelling house we noticed a very neat, pretty village, containing about forty small snow-white cottages, all precisely alike, built around a pleasant [[square]], in the centre of which, was a '''grove''' or cluster of magnificent sycamores.”
spot, he told me he there meant to place a small  
 
gothic building,—higher up, where a beautiful little
 
mound was covered with a grove of trees, he
 
meant to place a monument to his friend Wythe.”  
 
  
Cuming, Fortesque, 1810, describing a seat in
 
Pittsburgh, Pa. (p. 227)
 
  
“What adds to the beauty of Mr. Tannehill’s
+
*Martineau, Harriet, May 4, 1835, describing New Orleans, LA (1838: 1:274)<ref>Harriet Martineau, ''Retrospect of Western Travel'', 2 vols. (London: Saunders and Otley, 1838), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/KEG83GHS view on Zotero].</ref>
seat is, a handsome grove of about two acres of  
+
:“In the neighbourhood of Mobile, my relative, who has a true English love of gardening, had introduced the practice [of gardens]; and I there saw villas and cottages surrounded with a luxuriant growth of Cherokee roses, honeysuckles, and myrtles, while '''groves''' of orange-trees appeared in the background.”
young black oaks, northwest of his dwelling,
 
through the middle of which runs a long frame
 
bowery, on whose end fronting the road, is seen
 
this motto, ‘1808, Dedicated to Virtue, Liberty, and
 
  
Independence’ Here a portion of the citizens meet
 
on each 4th of July, to hail with joyful hearts the
 
day that gave birth to the liberties and happiness
 
of their country. On the opposite side of the road
 
to the bowery, is a spring issuing from the side of
 
the hill, whose water trickles down a rich clover
 
patch, through which is a deep hollow with several
 
small cascades, overhung with the willow, and
 
fruit trees of various kinds.”
 
  
Peale, Charles Willson, 22 July 1810, describing  
+
*Breck, Joseph, February 1, 1836, describing Bellmont Place, residence of John Perkins Cushing, Watertown, MA (''Horticultural Register'' 2: 43)<ref>Joseph Breck, “Gardens, Hot-Houses, &c., in the Vicinity of Boston,” ''Horticultural Register, and Gardener’s Magazine'' 2 (February 1, 1836): 41–47, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/IK2ZAWSC view on Zotero].</ref>
Belfield, estate of Charles Willson Peale, Germantown,  
+
:“The approach to the mansion from the road is by a winding [[avenue]] through a fine '''grove''' of ancient deciduous trees. The first view of the garden and ranges of glass structure, as we emerged from the '''grove''', was truly magnificent.”
Pa. (Miller, Hart, and Ward, eds., 1991:  
 
3:51)
 
  
“I am often pleased with the solemn groves
 
skirting meadows in majestic silence and cool
 
appearance.”
 
  
Bryant, William Cullen, 25 August 1821,  
+
*B., J., October 1, 1836, “Horticulture in Maine” (''Horticultural Register'' 2: 381)<ref>J. B., “Horticulture in Maine,” ''Horticultural Register, and Gardener’s Magazine'' 2 (October 1, 1836): 380–86, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HDTD7A9V view on Zotero].</ref>
 +
:“We noticed with pleasure, that most of the vicinity of Portland was highly decorated with numerous shade trees, in '''groves''', groups, and single, which the good taste of the proprietors of the soil have spared as yet. Near the city is an extensive, and one of the finest '''groves''' of oaks we have ever seen.”
  
describing the Vale, estate of Theodore Lyman,
 
Waltham, Mass. (1975: 108–9)
 
  
“He took me to the seat of Mr. Lyman. ...It is
+
*Featherstonhaugh, George William, August 20, 1837, describing Pendleton, SC (quoted in Jones 1957: 126–27)<ref>Katharine M. Jones, ''The Plantation South'' (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1957), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/AT62T7KC view on Zotero].</ref>
a perfect paradise. . . . A hard rolled walk, by the  
+
:“I went in the carriage with the ladies to the Episcopal Church at Pendleton, a neat [[temple]] prettily situated in a shady '''grove'''.”
side of a brick wall . . . led us to a grove of young
 
forest trees on the top of [an] eminence in the
 
midst of which was a Chinese temple.”  
 
  
Silliman, Benjamin, 1824, describing Monte
 
Video, property of Daniel Wadsworth, Avon,
 
Conn. (pp. 14–15)
 
  
“From the boat or summer house, several
+
*Hovey, C. M. (Charles Mason), November 1839, describing Elfin Glen, residence of P. Dodge, Salem, MA (''Magazine of Horticulture'' 5: 404)<ref>Charles Mason Hovey, “Notices of Gardens and Horticulture, in Salem, Mass.,” ''Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs'' 5, no. 11 (November 1839): 401–16, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/25HW5NZ9 view on Zotero].</ref>
paths diverge . . . the first passes round the lake,  
+
:“In front of the cottage, and extending to the limits of the garden, on the west, ornamental [[shrub]]s and forest trees are thickly planted, and are making a rapid and healthy growth; in a few years they will form a dense and shady '''grove'''.”
and generally out of sight of it, for a quarter of a
 
mile, until descending a very steep bank, through
 
a grove of evergreens, so dark as to be almost
 
impervious to the rays of the sun, even at noon
 
day.”  
 
  
Anonymous, 17 April 1829, “Neglected Grave
 
Yards” (New England Farmer 7: 307)
 
  
“I wish to call your attention to the subject of
+
*Willis, Nathaniel Parker, 1840, describing [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]], Cambridge, MA (1840: 348)<ref>Nathaniel Parker Willis, ''American Scenery; Or, Land, Lake, and River: Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature'', 2 vols. (London: George Virtue, 1840), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/T5CMW67U/ view on Zotero].</ref>
repairing, clearing, and ornamenting the burial
+
:“This [[picturesque]] and beautiful [[burial ground|burial-place]] occupies a '''grove''', formerly an academic and sylvan retreat for the students of Harvard College, near by.
grounds of New England. These enclosures are
 
commonly neglected by the sexton, and present to
 
the curious traveller, an ugly collection of slate
 
slabs, of weeds, and rank or dried grass. A small
 
effort in each sexton or clergyman, would suffice
 
to awaken attention, to bring to the recollection of
 
some, and to the fancy of all, a scene which every
 
village should present, a grove sacred to the dead
 
and to their recollection, to calm religious conversation,  
 
and to melancholy musing—inclosed with
 
shrubbery, and evergreen, and dignified by the  
 
lofty maple, and elm, and oak, and guarded by a
 
living hedge of hawthorn.  
 
  
“Every sexton should procure some oak, elm,
 
and locust seed, and make it a part of his vocation
 
to scatter it for chance growth.”
 
  
Ingraham, Joseph Holt, 1835, describing a village
+
*Bryant, William Cullen, April 24, 1843, describing St. Anastasia, FL (quoted in Clarke 1993: 2:161)<ref name="Clarke"></ref>
near New Orleans, La. (1:81–82)  
+
:“In another part of the same island, which we visited afterward, is a dwelling-house situated amid orange-'''groves'''. Closely planted rows of the sour orange, the native tree of the country, intersect and shelter [[orchard]]s of the sweet orange, the lemon, and the lime.”
  
“On the left and diagonally from the dwelling
 
house we noticed a very neat, pretty village, containing
 
about forty small snow-white cottages, all
 
  
precisely alike, built around a pleasant square, in  
+
[[File:1097.jpg|thumb|Fig. 11, Thomas S. Sinclair, “Plan of the [[Pleasure ground/Pleasure garden|Pleasure Grounds]] and Farm of the [[Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane]] at Philadelphia,in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4, no. 4 (April 1848): pl. opp. 280.]]
the centre of which, was a grove or cluster of magnificent
+
*Kirkbride, Thomas S., April 1848, describing the [[pleasure ground]]s and farm of the [[Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane]], Philadelphia, PA (''American Journal of Insanity'' 4: 348)<ref>Thomas S. Kirkbride, “Description of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, with Remarks,” ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4, no. 4 (April 1848): 347–54, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/9RWM2FH8 view on Zotero].</ref>
sycamores.”  
+
:“The remainder of the grounds on this side of the [[deer-park]] is specially appropriated to the use of the male patients. In this division is a fine '''grove''' of large trees, several detached [[clump]]s of various kinds and a great variety of single trees standing alone or in [[avenue]]s along the different [[walk]]s, which, of brick, gravel or tan, are for the men, more than a mile and a quarter in extent. The '''groves''' are fitted up with seats and [[summer house]]s, and have various means of exercise and amusement connected with them. . .
 +
:“The work-shop and lumber-yard are just within the main entrance on the west—adjoining which is a fine '''grove''', in which is the gentlemen’s ten-pin alley.” [Fig. 11]
  
Martineau, Harriet, 4 May 1835, describing
 
New Orleans, La. (1838: 1:274)
 
  
“In the neighbourhood of Mobile, my relative,  
+
*Hovey, C. M. (Charles Mason), March 1849, describing the residence of Gen. Elias W. Leavenworth, Syracuse, NY (''Magazine of Horticulture'' 15: 98)<ref>C. M. Hovey, “Notes of a Visit to Several Gardens & Nurseries in Western New York,” ''Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs'' 15, no. 3 (March 1849): 97–105, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/T6A833UU view on Zotero].</ref>
who has a true English love of gardening, had
+
:“. . . this [the fruit garden] and the house occupy about half of the ground: the other half has been made a most beautiful '''grove'''; this was done by a judicious cutting away of whole trees in some places, and by pruning and thinning the branches in others, leaving the whole a [[picturesque]] mass, which years of time and labor could not have produced.”
introduced the practice [of gardens]; and I there
 
saw villas and cottages surrounded with a luxuriant
 
growth of Cherokee roses, honeysuckles, and
 
myrtles, while groves of orange-trees appeared in
 
the background.”  
 
  
Breck, Joseph, 1 February 1836, describing Bellmont
 
Place, residence of John Perkins Cushing,
 
Watertown, Mass. (Horticultural Register 2: 43)
 
  
“The approach to the mansion from the road
+
*Gordon, Alexander, June 1849, describing the residence of Mr. Valcouraam, near New Orleans, LA (''Magazine of Horticulture'' 15: 247–48)<ref>Alexander Gordon, “Remarks on Gardens and Gardening in Louisiana,” ''Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs'' 15, no. 6 (June 1849): 245–49, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/HNZQV4FE/q/gardens%20and%20gardening view on Zotero].</ref>
is by a winding avenue through a fine grove of  
+
:“For instance, within a few minutes walk from where I now write, I could find magnificent '''groves''' of magnolias (now in full bloom,) with an abundance of choice trees and [[shrub]]s. All that would be required to form the scene into a perfect ''facsimile'' of an English [[shrubbery]] would be to introduce [[walk]]s, and judiciously thin out and regulate the mass.”
ancient deciduous trees. The first view of the garden
 
and ranges of glass structure, as we emerged
 
from the grove, was truly magnificent.”  
 
  
B., J., 1 October 1836, “Horticulture in Maine”
 
(Horticultural Register 2: 381)
 
  
“We noticed with pleasure, that most of the  
+
*Committee on the Capitol Square, Richmond City Council, July 26, 1851, describing John Notman's plans for the Capitol Square, Richmond, VA (quoted in Greiff 1979: 162)<ref>Constance Greiff, ''John Notman, Architect, 1810–1865'' (Philadelphia: Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 1979), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/SXT2RI6Z view on Zotero].</ref>
vicinity of Portland was highly decorated with
+
:“The most beautiful feature of the contemplated alterations of the [[Square]], however, will be found in the arrangement of the trees and [[shrubbery]]. Instead of planting these in parallel rows, like an ordinary [[orchard]] some attention will be paid to [[landscape gardening]]—'''groves''', [[arbour]]s, [[parterre]]s, and [[fountain]]s will combine to render the [[Square]] a place of delightful resort.”
numerous shade trees, in groves, groups, and single,  
 
which the good taste of the proprietors of the  
 
soil have spared as yet. Near the city is an extensive,  
 
and one of the finest groves of oaks we have
 
ever seen.”  
 
  
Featherstonhaugh, George William,
 
20 August 1837, describing Pendleton, S.C.
 
(quoted in Jones 1957: 126–27)
 
  
“I went in the carriage with the ladies to the  
+
*[[Andrew Jackson Downing|Downing, Andrew Jackson]], August 1851, “The New-York Park” (''Horticulturist'' 6: 346–47)<ref>Andrew Jackson Downing, “The New-York Park,” ''Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 6, no. 8 (August 1851): 345–49, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2XEW44DT view on Zotero].</ref>
Episcopal Church at Pendleton, a neat temple
+
:“That because it is needful in civilized life for men to live in cities,—yes, and unfortunately too, for children to be born and educated without a daily sight of the blessed horizon,—it is not, therefore, needful for them to be so miserly as to live utterly divorced from all pleasant and healthful intercourse with gardens and green fields. He [Mayor Kingsland] informs them that cool umbrageous '''groves''' have not forsworn themselves within town limits, and that half a million of people have a ''right'' to ask for the ‘greatest happiness’ of [[park]]s and [[pleasure ground]]s, as well as for paving stones and gas lights. . .
prettily situated in a shady grove.”  
+
:“In the broad area of such a verdant zone would gradually grow up, as the wealth of the city increases, winter gardens of glass, like the great Crystal Palace, where the whole people could luxuriate in '''groves''' of the palms and spice trees of the tropics, at the same moment that sleighing parties glided swiftly and noiselessly over the snow covered surface of the country-like [[avenue]]s of the wintry park without.”
  
Hovey, C. M., November 1839, describing Elfin
 
Glen, residence of P. Dodge, Salem, Mass. (Magazine
 
of Horticulture 5: 404)
 
  
“In front of the cottage, and extending to the
+
===Citations===
limits of the garden, on the west, ornamental
+
[[File:1054.jpg|thumb|Fig. 12, Michael van der Gucht, “Designs of Groves of a Middle Height,” A.-J. Dézallier d’Argenville, ''The Theory and Practice of Gardening'' (1712), pl. 4c, n.p.]]
shrubs and forest trees are thickly planted, and are  
+
*Dezallier d’Argenville, Antoine-Joseph, 1712, ''The Theory and Practice of Gardening'' (1712: 48–49)<ref>A.-J. (Antoine Joseph) Dézallier d’Argenville, ''The Theory and Practice of Gardening; Wherein Is Fully Handled All That Relates to Fine Gardens, . . . Containing Divers Plans, and General Dispositions of Gardens'', trans. John James (London: Geo. James, 1712), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/RNT8ZVZ8 view on Zotero].</ref>
making a rapid and healthy growth; in a few years
+
:“''The French'' call a '''Grove''' ''Bosquet'', from the ''Italian'' Word ''Bosquetto'', a little [[Wood]] of small Extent, as much as to say, a Nosegay, or Bunch of Green.
they will form a dense and shady grove.”  
+
:“''[[WOOD]]S'' and '''Groves''' make the ''Relievo'' of Gardens, and serve infinitely to improve the flat Parts, as [[Parterre]]s and [[Bowling-green]]s. Care should be taken to place them so, that they may not hinder the Beauty of the [[Prospect]]. . .
 +
:“Their most usual Forms are the Star, the direct Cross, S. ''Andrew’s'' Cross, and the Goose-Foot; they nevertheless admit the following Designs, as Cloisters, [[Labyrinth]]s, Quincunces, [[Bowling-green]]s, Halls, Cabinets, circular and [[square]] Compartiments, Halls for Comedy, Covered Halls, Natural and Artificial [[Arbor]]s, [[Fountain]]s, Isles, [[cascade|Cascades]], Water-Galleries, Green-Galleries, ''&c''.” [Fig. 12]
  
Willis, Nathaniel Parker, 1840, describing
 
Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass.
 
([1840] 1971: 348)
 
  
“This picturesque and beautiful burial-place
+
*Langley, Batty, 1728, ''New Principles of Gardening'' (1728; repr., 1982: Introduction, 195–203)<ref>Batty Langley, ''New Principles of Gardening, or The Laying out and Planting Parterres, Groves, Wildernesses, Labyrinths, Avenues, Parks, &c'' (London: A. Bettesworth and J. Batley, etc., 1728; repr. New York: Garland, 1982), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/MRDTAEKC view on Zotero].</ref>
occupies a grove, formerly an academic and sylvan
+
:“Their [Nobility and Gentry of England] ''Wildernesses'' and '''''Groves''''' (when they planted any) were always placed at the most remote Parts of the Garden: So that before we can enter them, in the ''Heat of Summer'', when they are most useful, we are obliged to pass thro’ the ''scorching Heat of the Sun''.
retreat for the students of Harvard College,  
+
:“Indeed, ’tis oftentimes necessary to place '''''Groves''''' and open ''Wildernesses'' in such remote Parts of Gardens, from whence ''pleasant [[Prospect]]s are taken''; but then we should always take care to plant ''proportionable [[Avenue]]s'' leading from the House to them, under whose ''Shade'' we might with Pleasure pass and repass at any time of the Day. . .
near by.”  
+
:“Their '''GROVES''' (whenever they planted any) were always regular, ''like unto [[Orchard]]s'', which is entirely wrong; for when we come to ''copy'', or ''imitate Nature'', we should trace her Steps with the greatest Accuracy that can be. And therefore when we plant '''''Groves''' of Forest or other Trees'', we have nothing more to regard, than that the outside Lines be agreeable to the Figure of the '''Grove''', and that no three Trees together range in a strait [''sic''] Line; excepting now and then by Chance, to cause Variety. . .
 +
:“''General'' DIRECTIONS, ''&c''.
 +
:“I. THAT the grand Front of a Building lie open upon an elegant [[Lawn]] or Plain of Grass, adorn’d with beautiful [[Statue]]s, (of which hereafter in their Place,) terminated on its Sides with open '''Groves'''. . .
 +
:“VIII. That Shady [[Walk]]s be planted from the End-[[View]]s of a House, and terminate in those open '''Groves''' that enclose the Sides of the plain [[Parterre]], that thereby you may enter into immediate Shade, as soon as out of the House, without being heated by the Scorching Rays of the Sun. . .
 +
:“IX. That all the Trees of your Shady [[Walk]]s and '''Groves''' be planted with Sweet-Brier, White Jessemine, and Honey-Suckles, environ’d at Bottom with a small Circle of Dwarf-Stock, Candy-Turf, and Pinks. . .
 +
:“XVIII. That the Intersection of [[Walk]]s be adorn’d with [[Statue]]s, large open Plains, '''Groves''', Cones of Fruit, of Ever-Greens, of Flowering [[Shrub]]s, of Forest Trees, [[Bason]]s, [[Fountain]]s, [[Sun-Dial]]s, and [[Obelisk]]s. . .
 +
:“XXV. '''Groves''' of Standard Ever-Greens, as Yew, Holly, Box, and Bay-Trees, are very pleasant, especially when a delightful [[Fountain]] is plac’d in their Center. . .
 +
[[File:1053.jpg|thumb|Fig. 13, Batty Langley, “Design of a ''rural Garden'', after the new manner,” in ''New Principles of Gardening'' (1728), pl. III, opp. 208.]]
 +
:“XXXII. In the Planting of '''Groves''', you must observe a regular Irregularity; not planting them according to the common Method like an [[Orchard]], with their Trees in straight Lines ranging every Way, but in a rural Manner, as if they had receiv’d their Situation from Nature itself.
 +
:“XXXIII. Plant in and about your several '''Groves''', and other Parts of your Garden, good store of Black-Cherry and other Trees that produce Food for Birds, which will not a little add to the Pleasure thereof. . .
 +
:“XXXV. The several kinds of Forest-Trees make beautiful '''Groves''', as also doth many Ever-Greens, or both mix’d together; but none more beautiful than that noble Tree the Pine.” [Fig. 13]
  
Bryant, William Cullen, 24 April 1843,
 
  
describing St. Anastasia, Fla. (quoted in Clarke
+
*Miller, Philip, 1754, ''The Gardeners Dictionary'' (1754; repr., 1969: 588–90)<ref>Philip Miller, ''The Gardeners Dictionary'' (New York: Verlag Von J. Cramer, 1969), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/356Q24EP view on Zotero].</ref>
1993: 2:161)
+
:“'''GROVES''' are the greatest Ornaments to a Garden; nor can a Garden be complete which has not one or more of these. In small Gardens there is scarce room to admit of '''Groves''' of any Extent; yet in these there should be at least one contrived, which should be as large as the Ground will allow it: and where these are small, there is more Skill required in the Disposition, to give them the Appearance of being larger than they really are. . .
 +
:“These '''Groves''' are not only great Ornaments to Gardens, but are also the greatest Relief against the violent Heats of the Sun, affording Shade to walk under, in the hottest Part of the Day, when the other Parts of the Garden are useless; so that every Garden is defective which has not Shade.
 +
:“'''Groves''' are of two Sorts: viz. open and close '''Groves''': Open '''Groves''' are such as have large shady Trees, which stand at such Distances, as that their Branches may approach so near each other, as to prevent the Rays of the Sun from penetrating through them: but as such Trees are a long time in growing to a proper Size for affording a Shade; so where new '''Groves''' are planted, the Trees must be placed closer together, in order to have Shade as soon as possible: but in planting of these '''Groves''', it is much the best Way to dispose all the Trees irregularly, which will give them a greater Magnificence, and also form a shade sooner, than when the Trees are planted in Lines; for when the Sun shines between the Rows of Trees, as it must do some Part of the Day in Summer, the [[Walk]]s between them will be exposed to the Heat, at such times, until the Branches of these Trees meet, whereas, in the irregular [[Plantation]]s, the Trees intervene, and obstruct the direct Rays of the Sun.
 +
:“When a Person, who is to lay out a Garden, is so happy as to meet with large full-grown Trees upon the Spot, they should remain inviolate, if possible; for it will be better to put up with many Inconveniencies, than to destroy these. . . so that nothing but that of offending the Habitation, by being so near as to occasion great Damps, should tempt the cutting of them down. . .
 +
:“Close '''Groves''' have frequently large Trees standing in them; but the Ground is filled under these with [[Shrub]]s, or Underwood; so that the [[Walk]]s which are made in them are private, and screened from Winds; whereby they are rendered agreeable for walking, at such times when the Air is too violent or cold for walking in the more exposed Parts of the Garden.
 +
:“These are often contrived so as to bound the open '''Groves''', and frequently to hide the [[Wall]]s, or other Inclosures of the Garden: and when they are properly laid out, with dry [[Walk]]s winding through them, and on the Sides of these sweet-smelling [[Shrub]]s and Flowers irregularly planted, they have a charming Effect: for here a Person may walk in private sheltered from the Inclemency of cold or violent Winds; and enjoy the greatest Sweets of the vegetable Kingdom: therefore where it can be admitted, if they are continued round the whole Inclosure of the Garden, there will be a much greater Extent of [[Walk]]: and these Shrubs will appear the best Boundary, where there are not fine [[Prospect]]s to be gained.
 +
:“These close '''Groves''' are by the ''French'' termed ''Bosquets'', from the ''Italian'' word ''Bosquetto'', which signifies a little [[Wood]]: and in most of the ''French'' Gardens there are many of them planted; but these are reduced to regular Figures, as Ovals, Triangles, [[Square]]s, and Stars: but these have neither the Beauty or Use which those have that are made irregularly, and whose [[Walk]]s are not shut up on each Side by [[Hedge]]s, which prevents the Eye from seeing the [[Quarter]]s; and these want the Fragrancy of the Shrubs and Flowers, which are the great Delight of these private [[Walk]]s; add to this, the keeping of the [[Hedge]]s in good Order is attended with a great Expence; which is a capital Thing to be considered in the making of Gardens.”
  
“In another part of the same island, which we
 
visited afterward, is a dwelling-house situated
 
amid orange-groves. Closely planted rows of the
 
sour orange, the native tree of the country, intersect
 
and shelter orchards of the sweet orange, the
 
lemon, and the lime.”
 
  
Kirkbride, Thomas S., April 1848, describing the  
+
*Ware, Isaac, 1756, ''A Complete Body of Architecture'' (1756: 649–51)<ref>Isaac Ware, ''A Complete Body of Architecture'' (London: T. Osborne and J. Shipton, 1756), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/2EK2USKV view on Zotero].</ref>
pleasure grounds and farm of the Pennsylvania
+
:“The disposition of '''groves''' is a consideration not enough regarded: we err in it greatly; we plant the trees too close, and we make the [[walk]]s too narrow. The person who goes into them to be free from the sun is choaked for want of air; and the same closeness occasions a continual damp, very dangerous at such seasons. Every thing in them is gloomy and disagreeable. Instead of this, a kind of cheerfulness may be diffused even there; and we may have solitude, shade, and retirement, without a savage darkness of dreary wet. . .
Hospital for the Insane, Philadelphia, Pa. (American
+
:“Let the [[plantation]] be made of selected trees, as we have proposed, and let them have good distance: they will grow more vigorously, and the [[walk]] will be more wholesome.
Journal of Insanity 4: 348)
+
:“This space of planting will also give reason for flowering [[shrub]]s, which may be scattered here and there about the [[walk]], and will thrive nearly as well as in the open air.
 +
:“Thus may the '''groves''' be constructed ornamentally to the other parts of the garden, elegant and pleasing in themselves, and fit to form recesses in which to place [[Statue|statutes]] [''sic''], [[temple]]s, and other structures. . .
 +
:“A ragged outside of a '''grove''' contrasts the trim cheerfulness of an even [[walk]]; and one gives the other lustre. The only rule is, that they be used with moderation and discretion; for they must be considered as foils and extravagancies, not as the essential and regular part of a garden.”
  
“The remainder of the grounds on this side of
 
the deer-park is specially appropriated to the use
 
of the male patients. In this division is a fine grove
 
of large trees, several detached clumps of various
 
kinds and a great variety of single trees standing
 
alone or in avenues along the different walks,
 
which, of brick, gravel or tan, are for the men,
 
more than a mile and a quarter in extent. The
 
groves are fitted up with seats and summer
 
houses, and have various means of exercise and
 
amusement connected with them. . . .
 
  
“The work-shop and lumber-yard are just
+
*Whately, Thomas, 1770, ''Observations on Modern Gardening'' (1770; repr., 1982: 36, 46–48)<ref>Thomas Whately, ''Observations on Modern Gardening'', 3rd ed. (1770; repr., London: Garland, 1982), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QKRK8DCD/ view on Zotero].</ref>
within the main entrance on the west—adjoining
+
:“Every [[plantation]] must be either a ''[[wood]]'', a '''''grove''''', a ''[[clump]]'', or a ''single tree''. “A wood is composed of both trees and underwood, covering a considerable space. A '''grove''' consists of trees without underwood; a [[clump]] differs from either only in extent. . .
which is a fine grove, in which is the gentlemen’s
+
:“The prevailing character of a [[wood]] is generally grandeur. . . But the character of a '''grove''' is ''beauty''; fine trees are lovely objects; a '''grove''' is an assemblage of them; in which every individual retains much of its own peculiar elegance; and whatever it loses, is transferred to the superior beauty of the whole. To a '''grove''', therefore, which admits of endless variety in the disposition of the trees, differences in their shapes and their greens are seldom very important, and sometimes they are detrimental. . .
ten-pin alley.”  
+
:“Though a '''grove''' be beautiful as an object, it is besides delightful as a spot to [[walk]] or to sit in; and the choice and the disposition of the trees for effects ''within'', are therefore a principal consideration. Mere irregularity alone will not please; strict order is there more agreable than absolute confusion; and some meaning better than none. . . . The distances therefore should be strikingly different: the trees should gather into groupes, or stand in various irregular lines, and describe several figures: the intervals between them should be contracted both in shape and in dimensions: a large space should in someplaces be quite open: in others the trees should be so close together, as hardly to leave a passage between them; and in others as far apart as the connexion will allow. In the forms and the varieties of these groupes, these lines, and these openings, principally consists the interior beauty of a '''grove'''.”
  
Hovey, C. M., March 1849, describing the residence
 
of Gen. Elias W. Leavenworth, Syracuse,
 
  
N.Y. (Magazine of Horticulture 15: 98)  
+
*Squibb, Robert, 1787, ''The Gardener’s Calendar for South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina'' (1787; repr., 1980: 51)<ref>Robert Squibb, ''The Gardener’s Calendar for South-Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina'' (1787; repr., Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/98BZAHB3 view on Zotero].</ref>
“this [the fruit garden] and the house occupy
+
:“If you plant the orange trees for a [[hedge]], about ten feet will be a good distance; but if intended for an [[orchard]] or a '''grove''', twenty feet will not be too much.”
about half of the ground: the other half has been
 
made a most beautiful grove; this was done by a  
 
judicious cutting away of whole trees in some
 
places, and by pruning and thinning the branches
 
in others, leaving the whole a picturesque mass,  
 
which years of time and labor could not have
 
produced.”  
 
  
Gordon, Alexander, June 1849, describing the
 
residence of Mr. Valcouraam, near New Orleans,
 
La. (Magazine of Horticulture 15: 247–48)
 
  
“For instance, within a few minutes walk from
+
*Sheridan, Thomas, 1789, ''A Complete Dictionary of the English Language'' (1789: n.p.)<ref>Thomas A. Sheridan, ''A Complete Dictionary of the English Language, Carefully Revised and Corrected by John Andrews'', 5th ed. (Philadelphia: William Young, 1789), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/T5GU4CBQ view on Zotero].</ref>
where I now write, I could find magnificent
+
:“'''GROVE''', gro’ve. s. A [[walk]] covered by trees meeting above.”
groves of magnolias (now in full bloom,) with an
 
abundance of choice trees and shrubs. All that
 
would be required to form the scene into a perfect
 
facsimile of an English shrubbery would be to
 
introduce walks, and judiciously thin out and regulate
 
the mass.”  
 
  
Committee on the Capitol Square, Richmond
 
City Council, 26 July 1851, describing John Notman’s
 
plans for the Capitol Square, Richmond,
 
Va. (quoted in Greiff 1979: 162)
 
  
“The most beautiful feature of the contemplated
+
*Deane, Samuel, 1790, ''The New-England Farmer'' (1790: 116)<ref>Samuel Deane, ''The New-England Farmer, or Georgical Dictionary'' (Worcester, MA: Isaiah Thomas, 1790), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/S8QQDHP6 view on Zotero].</ref>
alterations of the Square, however, will be
+
:“'''GROVE''', a row or [[walk]] of trees planted close, for ornament and shade.
found in the arrangement of the trees and shrubbery.  
+
:“Formerly a '''grove''' made in regular lines, was considered as most ornamental. But modern improvers are rather disgusted with the uniformity of a '''grove''', and prefer those which appear as if they were the work of nature or chance. As taste alters from time to time, I shall not undertake to determine which are most grand or beautiful. As my great object is real improvement and advantage, I shall here attend to '''groves''' in regular lines.
Instead of planting these in parallel rows,  
+
:“'''Groves''' in gardens are both ornamental and useful. They shade the [[walk]]s in the borders; so that we may walk in gardens with pleasure, in the hottest part of the day. It is scarcely needful to say these garden '''groves''' should consist of fruit-trees; and they should be of the smaller kinds, in a garden of a small size. A double row has the best effect, one near the [[wall]], the other on the opposite side of the [[walk]].
like an ordinary orchard some attention will be  
+
:“In other situations '''groves''' of larger trees are preferred. Lanes and [[avenue]]s leading to mansion houses and other buildings, may be ornamented with rows of trees, either on one, or on both sides: If only on one, it should be the southermost, on account of the advantage of shade. . .
paid to landscape gardening—groves, arbours,  
+
:“It would be advantageous to the publick, as well as to the owners of adjoining farms, if all our roads were lined with '''groves'''. They might be either within or without the fences. In the latter case, government might interpose, and secure to the planters those which stood in the roads; and oblige farmers to plant in the roads against their own lands. . .
parterres, and fountains will combine to render
+
:“If the country were well stocked with these '''groves''', their perspiration would help to abate the scorching heat of the sun, by moistening the atmosphere. They would serve to impede the force of high driving winds and storms in summer, which often tear our tender vegetables, or lay our crops flat to the ground. Our buildings would be also in less danger from them. The winds in winter would not be so keen and violent. The force of sea winds on our fruit-trees would be abated. The snows that fall would be more even on the ground. Roads would be less blocked up, and seldomer rendered impassable by them. But for these last purposes, '''groves''' of evergreens will have the greatest effect.
the Square a place of delightful resort.”  
+
:“'''Groves''' should be planted thick at first, that the above advantages may be had from them while young. When the trees become so large as to be crowded, they should be thinned.”
  
Downing, A. J., August 1851, “The New-York
 
Park” (Horticulturist 6: 346–47)
 
  
“That because it is needful in civilized life for
+
*Marshall, William, 1803, ''On Planting and Rural Ornament'' (1803: 1:119, 145)<ref>William Marshall, ''On Planting and Rural Ornament: A Practical Treatise. . .'', 2 vols. (London: G. and W. Nicol, G. and J. Robinson, T. Cadell, and W. Davies, 1803), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/K48D75JJ view on Zotero].</ref>
men to live in cities,—yes, and unfortunately too,  
+
:“by ''Timber '''Grove''''' [is meant], a collection of timber trees only, placed in close order. . .
for children to be born and educated without a
+
:“THE TIMBER '''GROVE''' is the prevailing ''plantation'' of modern time. [[WOOD]]S or [[Copse|COPPICES]] are seldom attempted: indeed, until of late years, [[clump]]s of Scotch Firs seem to have engaged, in a great measure, the attention of the planter.
daily sight of the blessed horizon,—it is not, therefore,  
 
needful for them to be so miserly as to live
 
utterly divorced from all pleasant and healthful intercourse with gardens and green fields. He
 
[Mayor Kingsland] informs them that cool
 
umbrageous groves have not forsworn themselves
 
within town limits, and that half a million of people
 
have a right to ask for the ‘greatest happiness’
 
of parks and pleasure grounds, as well as for
 
paving stones and gas lights. . . .  
 
  
“In the broad area of such a verdant zone
 
would gradually grow up, as the wealth of the city
 
increases, winter gardens of glass, like the great
 
Crystal Palace, where the whole people could luxuriate
 
in groves of the palms and spice trees of the
 
tropics, at the same moment that sleighing parties
 
glided swiftly and noiselessly over the snow covered
 
surface of the country-like avenues of the
 
wintry park without.”
 
  
===Citations===
+
*[[Bernard M'Mahon|M’Mahon, Bernard]], 1806, ''The American Gardener’s Calendar'' (1806: 58–59, 63–64)<ref>Bernard M’Mahon, ''The American Gardener’s Calendar: Adapted to the Climates and Seasons of the United States. Containing a Complete Account of All the Work Necessary to Be Done . . . for Every Month of the Year'' (Philadelphia: Printed by B. Graves for the author, 1806), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/HU4JIS9C view on Zotero].</ref>
 +
:“Straight ranges of the most stately trees, are sometimes arranged on grass-ground in different parts, in contrast with irregular plantations; and produce a most agreeable effect, which though prohibited in many [[modern style|modern]] designs, always exhibit an air of grandeur; being arranged sometimes in single rows, others double, or two ranges at certain distances, forming a grand [[walk]]; in other parts, several regular ranges of trees together in the manner of '''groves'''; the whole combined, forming a diversity, pleasing to the senses, and condusive to health, by exciting to the salutary exercise of walking. . .
 +
: "The planting in '''groves''' and avenues should consist principally of the tree kind, and such as are of straight and handsome growth, with the most branchy, full, regular heads, and may be both of the deciduous and ever-green tribes; but generally arranged separately: '''groves''' and [[avenue]]s, should always be in some spacious open space, formed into grass-ground, either before or after planting the trees; and in planting the '''groves''', it is most eligible to arrange the trees in lines, in some places straight rows, others in gentle bendings, or easy sweeps, having the rows at some considerable distance, that the trees may have full scope to display their branchy heads regularly around; and in some places may have close '''groves''' to form a perfect shade. . .
 +
:“It very frequently happens, that on the spot or tract, which is designed for a [[pleasure-ground]], are found large stately trees of considerable standing, properly situated to be introduced into the design; and sometimes numbers in suitable assemblages, for constituting '''groves''', or [[thicket]]s, and some for single standing groups or [[clump]]s, &c. which will prove of considerable advantage; these should be preserved with the utmost care, as it would require many years to form the like with young [[plantation]]s; and although the trees should stand ever so close, irregular, or straggling, with proper address in thinning and regulating them where necessary, they may be made to become beautifully ornamental to the place, and to prevent a considerable expense.”
  
[Dézallier d’Argenville, A.-J.], 1712, The
 
Theory and Practice of Gardening ([1712] 1969: 48–49)
 
  
“The French call a Grove Bosquet, from the  
+
*Nicol, Walter, 1812, ''The Planter’s Kalendar'' (1812: 40–42, 259–61)<ref>Walter Nicol, ''The Planter’s Kalendar'' (Edinburgh: D. Willison for A. Constable, 1812), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NEMUHDCC view on Zotero].</ref>
Italian Word Bosquetto, a little Wood of small
+
:“But '''groves''' are most generally planted in the environs of a mansion-house, in [[park]]s, and ornamental grounds; and they often form the chief artificial features of a place. Here, indeed, if the place be extensive, they are most in character; and, if contrasted with [[wood]]s, [[copse]]s, and [[thicket]]s, produce great interest. But in such cases, a '''grove''' should never be, or at least appear to be, diminutive. Its situation should always be such, as to exhibit the greatest possible magnitude, when grown up, as well as in its infancy. That the '''grove''' may appear to most advantage, it is necessary that it occupy the hang of a hill, or the swell of a rising ground: thus situated, it shows a greatly enlarged canopy of foliage. When placed on level ground, the '''grove''' necessarily requires to be more extended in length and in breadth, to produce the same good effects.
Extent, as much as to say, a Nosegay, or Bunch of  
+
:“We do not wish that our observations respecting '''grove''' plantations, should be understood as affecting those [[clump]]s, small patches of planting, or groups of trees that are merely intended to beautify the [[park]] or the [[lawn]]. Were such [[clump]]s planted for any other purpose, we doubtless would consider them as very improper appendages: but when properly pruned and thinned, they are very ornamental. The trees in such [[clump]]s, however, should never be pruned up in imitation of '''grove''' trees, but should be feathered from the bottom upwards. . .
Green.  
+
:“It has already been observed, that a '''grove''' is a [[plantation]] of trees, whatever be their kind or kinds, which are intended to be trained up with straight tall trunks. This circumstance will partly determine its extent. If the eye can penetrate through a [[plantation]], it produces a feeling of nakedness. A '''grove''', then, should be of such an extent, or so particularly situated, that, from no side shall the eye be able to penetrate to the other, even were the trees arrived at their full stature, and properly trained. This circumstance shows also the propriety of removing the situation of the '''grove''' to a considerable distance from the site of the mansion-house: It would be no mark of an improved taste to narrow the [[prospect]], by placing a '''grove''' in an improper direction. . .
 +
:“A '''Grove''', then, may be constituted of a mixture of trees, like ordinary mixed [[plantation]]s,—or, more properly, in the form of masses; in which respect, indeed, they may be considered as ordinary [[plantation]]s. Indeed, they differ from them hardly in any thing, excepting that the principals are to be placed rather more closely together. The principals of a deciduous '''grove''' should be placed at the distance of six feet; and the interstices filled up with nurses of larch or firs, till the trees in the whole '''grove''' be only from three to four feet apart.
  
“WOODS and Groves make the Relievo of
 
Gardens, and serve infinitely to improve the flat
 
Parts, as Parterres and Bowling-greens. Care
 
should be taken to place them so, that they may
 
not hinder the Beauty of the Prospect. . . .
 
  
“Their most usual Forms are the Star, the
+
*Abercrombie, John, with James Mean, 1817, ''Abercrombie’s Practical Gardener'' (1817: 479)<ref>John Abercrombie, ''Abercrombie’s Practical Gardener Or, Improved System of Modern Horticulture'' (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1817), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/TH54TADZ view on Zotero].</ref>
direct Cross, S. Andrew’s Cross, and the Goose-
+
:“A '''''grove''''' is distinguished from a ''[[wood]]'', by being without underwood. Like the [[clump]], it may be intersected by the garden-[[walk]]s. . .
Foot; they nevertheless admit the following
+
:“A '''grove''' may have a fine effect on a level; but a '''grove''' rooted in unequal ground, gently curving along the side of a hill, is capable of more various beauty, by the [[view]]s and openings from the interior.”
Designs, as Cloisters, Labyrinths, Quincunces,  
 
Bowling-greens, Halls, Cabinets, circular and  
 
square Compartiments, Halls for Comedy, Covered
 
Halls, Natural and Artificial Arbors, Fountains,  
 
Isles, Cascades, Water-Galleries,  
 
Green-Galleries, &c.” [Fig. 10]
 
  
Langley, Batty, 1728, New Principles of Gardening
 
([1728] 1982: Introduction, 195–203)
 
  
“Their [Nobility and Gentry of England]  
+
[[File:1183.jpg|thumb|Fig. 14, [[J. C. Loudon]], "Groves", in ''An Encyclopædia of Gardening'' (1826), 943, figs. 629a and b.]]
Wildernesses and Groves
+
*[[J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon|Loudon, J. C. (John Claudius)]], 1826, ''An Encyclopaedia of Gardening'' (1826: 942–43)<ref>J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon, ''An Encyclopaedia of Gardening; Comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape-Gardening'', 4th ed. (London: Longman et al., 1826), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/KNKTCA4W view on Zotero].</ref>
(when they planted any)  
+
:“6813. ''With respect to the disposition of the trees within the [[plantation]]'', they may be placed regularly in rows, [[square]]s, parallelograms, or quincunx; irregularly in the manner of groups; without undergrowths, as in '''''groves''''' (''fig. 629. a, b''); with undergrowths, as in [[wood]]s (''c''); all undergrowths, as in ''[[copse]]-[[wood]]s'' (''d''). Or they may form ''[[avenue]]s'' ''(fig. 630. a''); double [[avenue]]s (''b''); [[avenue]]s intersecting in the manner of a Greek cross (''c''); of a martyr’s cross (''d''); of a star (''e''); or of a cross patée, or duck’s foot (''patée d’oye'') (''f'').” [Fig. 14]
were always placed at the most remote Parts of the  
 
Garden: So that before we can enter them, in the  
 
Heat of Summer, when they are most useful, we
 
are obliged to pass thro’ the scorching Heat of the
 
Sun.  
 
  
“Indeed, ’tis oftentimes necessary to place
 
Groves
 
and open Wildernesses in such remote
 
Parts of Gardens, from whence pleasant Prospects
 
are taken; but then we should always take care to
 
plant proportionable Avenues leading from the
 
House to them, under whose Shade we might with
 
Pleasure pass and repass at any time of the
 
Day. . . .
 
  
“Their GROVES (whenever they planted any)  
+
*[[Webster, Noah]], 1828, ''An American Dictionary of the English Language'' (1: n.p.)<ref>Noah Webster, ''An American Dictionary of the English Language'', 2 vols. (New York: S. Converse, 1828), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/N7BSU467 view on Zotero].</ref>
were always regular, like unto Orchards, which is
+
:“'''GROVE''', ''n''. [Sax. ''groef'', ''graf'', a ''grave'', a cave, a '''''grove'''''; Goth. ''groba''; from cutting an [[avenue]], or from the resemblance of an [[avenue]] to a channel.]
entirely wrong; for when we come to copy, or imitate
+
:“1. In ''gardening'', a small [[wood]] or cluster of trees with a shaded [[avenue]], or a wood impervious to the rays of the sun. A '''grove''' is either open or close; open, when consisting of large trees whose branches shade the ground below; close, when consisting of trees and underwood, which defend the [[avenue]]s from the rays of the sun and from violent winds. ''Encyc''.
Nature, we should trace her Steps with the  
+
:“2. A [[wood]] of small extent. In America, the word is applied to a [[wood]] of natural growth in the field, as well as to planted trees in a garden, but only to a [[wood]] of small extent and not to a forest.
greatest Accuracy that can be. And therefore when  
 
we plant Groves
 
of Forest or other Trees, we have
 
nothing more to regard, than that the outside Lines be agreeable to the Figure of the Grove, and
 
that no three Trees together range in a strait [sic]  
 
Line; excepting now and then by Chance, to cause
 
Variety. . ..  
 
  
“General DIRECTIONS, &c.
 
  
“I. THAT the grand Front of a Building lie
+
*Anonymous, December 26, 1828, “Groves” (''New England Farmer'' 7: 181)<ref>Anonymous, “Groves,” ''New England Farmer, and Horticultural Journal'' 7, no. 22 (December 26, 1828): 181, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/keywords_in_early_american_landscape_design/items/itemKey/PFNNIWBZ view on Zotero].</ref>
open upon an elegant Lawn or Plain of Grass,  
+
:“'''GROVES'''.
adorn’d with beautiful Statues, (of which hereafter
+
:“These are both ornamental and useful. To plant heights of ground, the sides and tops of which are generally not very good for tillage or pasture, adds much to the beauty of a landscape; and is at the same time highly useful, as it regards the quantities of firewood which may be produced from such spots. Planting rows of trees along highways is also pleasant for shade to the traveller, and profitable to the owner of the soil. The same may be observed, in regard to lanes, and to passages from the highway to the mansion-house. Sugar-maple trees, planted round the [[border]]s of [[meadow]]s, and some straggling ones in them, are very pleasant and profitable, as they do no injury to the growth of the grass. Wherever trees can be planted in pastures and along [[fence]]s, without doing injury to the growths of the adjoining fields by their shade, this part of rural economy ought never to be omitted.
in their Place,) terminated on its Sides with open
 
Groves....  
 
  
“VIII. That Shady Walks be planted from the
 
End-Views of a House, and terminate in those
 
open Groves that enclose the Sides of the plain
 
Parterre, that thereby you may enter into immediate
 
Shade, as soon as out of the House, without
 
being heated by the Scorching Rays of the
 
Sun. . . .
 
  
“IX. That all the Trees of your Shady Walks
+
*Adams, Nehemiah, 1838, ''The Boston Common'' (1838: 39–40)<ref>Nehemiah Adams, ''Boston Common'' (Boston: William D. Ticknor and H. B. Williams, 1842), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/VXTWGJ58/ view on Zotero].</ref>
and Groves be planted with Sweet-Brier, White
+
:“A dense '''grove''' of large evergreen trees of several species, might be planted in the centre of a [[park]] or [[green]], as large or larger than the [[Boston Common|Common]], to great advantage. It would form a beautiful ornament to the landscape, by the contrast of its foliage with that of the deciduous trees, in the summer—and in the winter, by the display of deep verdure when all else was desolated. In the cooler parts of the year, it would furnish a pleasant retreat from the rough winds of the season, and furnish an incentive to out-of-door exercise to those who might otherwise forego its advantages. . .
Jessemine, and Honey-Suckles, environ’d at Bottom
+
:“the disposition of the trees on the [[Boston Common|Common]] is apt to strike one as too stiff and formal, for the greatest degree of beauty. The science of [[landscape gardening]], our ignorance of which is so easily explained by the small amount of wealth with a comparatively new country can afford to devote to its practice, would have dictated differently. Had its principles been regarded, we should have seen trees of various foliage, here standing alone, and there intermingled in [[copse]]s and '''groves'''— arranged, indeed, so as to imitate nature herself, in her [[picturesque]]ness as well as her beauty.
with a small Circle of Dwarf-Stock, Candy-
 
Turf, and Pinks. . . .  
 
  
“XVIII. That the Intersection of Walks be
 
adorn’d with Statues, large open Plains, Groves,
 
Cones of Fruit, of Ever-Greens, of Flowering
 
Shrubs, of Forest Trees, Basons, Fountains, Sun-
 
Dials, and Obelisks. . . .
 
  
“XXV. Groves of Standard Ever-Greens, as
+
*Ranlett, William H., 1849, ''The Architect'' (1849; repr., 1976: 1:5)<ref>William H. Ranlett, ''The Architect'', 2 vols. (1849; repr., New York: Da Capo, 1976), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/QGQPCB5J view on Zotero].</ref>
Yew, Holly, Box, and Bay-Trees, are very pleasant,  
+
:“The one [cottage in Design I] here described, stands about fifty yards from the road, fronts eastnorth-east, and is nearly surrounded by fruit trees, which are preferred to forest trees by those who wish to combine utility with ornament, though for shade and ornament, the latter are generally chosen. A '''grove''' affords, to a house, a natural protection in both Summer and Winter.
especially when a delightful Fountain is plac’d in  
 
their Center. . . .  
 
  
“XXXII. In the Planting of Groves, you must
 
observe a regular Irregularity; not planting them
 
according to the common Method like an
 
Orchard, with their Trees in straight Lines ranging
 
  
every Way, but in a rural Manner, as if they had
+
*Jaques, George, January 1852, “Landscape Gardening in New-England” (''Horticulturist'' 7: 36)<ref>George Jaques, “Landscape Gardening in New-England,” ''The Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste'' 7, no. 1 (January 1852): 33–36, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/WMEDJ9XX view on Zotero].</ref>
receiv’d their Situation from Nature itself.  
+
:“A man of refinement would in these days, scarcely tolerate a geometrical arrangement of grounds of this extent. Such places admit of a winding carriage-way, leading through a fine [[lawn]] studded with groups of trees, irregularly circuitous [[walk]]s, bordered with various [[shrubbery]]; here and there a massive forest tree, standing in its full development singly upon the [[lawn]]; a [[summerhouse]] embowered in the midst of a little retired '''grove'''; arabesque forms of flower [[bed]]s occasionally inserted in the midst of the smooth green of a grass-[[plot]]; a [[vase]], pretty even when empty, but better over-flowing with water, which it costs not much to bring in a leaden pipe from some neighboring hill:—such are among the charms which almost seem to make a little paradise of home.
  
“XXXIII. Plant in and about your several
 
Groves, and other Parts of your Garden, good
 
store of Black-Cherry and other Trees that produce
 
Food for Birds, which will not a little add to
 
the Pleasure thereof. . . .
 
  
“XXXV. The several kinds of Forest-Trees
+
<hr>
make beautiful Groves, as also doth many Ever-
 
Greens, or both mix’d together; but none more
 
beautiful than that noble Tree the Pine.” [Fig. 11]
 
  
Miller, Philip, 1754, The Gardeners Dictionary
+
==Images==
 +
===Inscribed===
 +
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">
  
([1754] 1969: 588–90)
+
File:2282.jpg|[[Pierre Pharoux]], Plan of Esperanza, NY [detail], n.d. A “Public '''Grove'''” is situated on either side of the “[[Common]] Ground.”
  
“GROVES are the greatest Ornaments to a Garden;
+
File:1425.jpg| Michael van der Gucht, “The general Plan of a Garden drawn upon Paper” and “The same Plan of Garden mark'd out upon ye Ground,in A.-J. Dézallier d’Argenville, ''The Theory and Practice of Gardening'' (1712), 124.
nor can a Garden be complete which has not
 
one or more of these. In small Gardens there is
 
scarce room to admit of Groves of any Extent; yet
 
in these there should be at least one contrived,
 
which should be as large as the Ground will allow it:
 
and where these are small, there is more Skill
 
required in the Disposition, to give them the
 
Appearance of being larger than they really are. . . .  
 
  
“These Groves are not only great Ornaments
+
File:1426.jpg|Michael van der Gucht, “The [[Parterre]] C drawn & Squar’d over upon Paper,” “The same [[Parterre]] C Squared out & traced upon ye Ground,” and “The Grove V & ye [[Bowling green|Bowling-green]] X design’d upon paper,in A.-J. Dézallier d’Argenville, ''The Theory and Practice of Gardening'' (1712), 130.
to Gardens, but are also the greatest Relief against
 
the violent Heats of the Sun, affording Shade to
 
walk under, in the hottest Part of the Day, when
 
the other Parts of the Garden are useless; so that
 
every Garden is defective which has not Shade.  
 
  
“Groves are of two Sorts: viz. open and close
+
File:1054.jpg|Michael van der Gucht, “Designs of '''Groves''' of a Middle Height,” A.-J. Dézallier d’Argenville, ''The Theory and Practice of Gardening'' (1712), pl. 4c, n.p.  
Groves: Open Groves are such as have large shady
 
Trees, which stand at such Distances, as that their
 
Branches may approach so near each other, as to
 
prevent the Rays of the Sun from penetrating
 
through them: but as such Trees are a long time in growing to a proper Size for affording a Shade; so
 
where new Groves are planted, the Trees must be
 
placed closer together, in order to have Shade as
 
soon as possible: but in planting of these Groves,  
 
it is much the best Way to dispose all the Trees
 
irregularly, which will give them a greater Magnificence,
 
and also form a shade sooner, than when
 
the Trees are planted in Lines; for when the Sun
 
shines between the Rows of Trees, as it must do
 
some Part of the Day in Summer, the Walks
 
between them will be exposed to the Heat, at such
 
times, until the Branches of these Trees meet,
 
whereas, in the irregular Plantations, the Trees
 
intervene, and obstruct the direct Rays of the Sun.  
 
  
“When a Person, who is to lay out a Garden, is
+
File:1053.jpg|Batty Langley, “Design of a ''rural Garden'', after the new manner,” in ''New Principles of Gardening'' (1728), pl. III, opp. 208. '''Groves''' are indicated at R, O, N, and Y.
so happy as to meet with large full-grown Trees
 
upon the Spot, they should remain inviolate, if possible; for it will be better to put up with many
 
Inconveniencies, than to destroy these . . . so that
 
nothing but that of offending the Habitation, by
 
being so near as to occasion great Damps, should
 
tempt the cutting of them down. . . .  
 
  
“Close Groves have frequently large Trees
+
File:0134.jpg|Christian Remick, ''A Prospective [[View]] of part of the [[Boston Common|Commons]]'', c. 1768.
standing in them; but the Ground is filled under
 
these with Shrubs, or Underwood; so that the  
 
Walks which are made in them are private, and
 
screened from Winds; whereby they are rendered
 
agreeable for walking, at such times when the Air
 
is too violent or cold for walking in the more
 
exposed Parts of the Garden.  
 
  
“These are often contrived so as to bound the
+
File:2258.jpg|Sydney L. Smith (engraver) from a watercolor drawing by Christian Remick (c. 1768), ''A Prospective [[View]] of part of the [[Boston Common|Commons]]'', 1902.
open Groves, and frequently to hide the Walls, or
 
other Inclosures of the Garden: and when they are
 
properly laid out, with dry Walks winding
 
through them, and on the Sides of these sweet-
 
  
smelling Shrubs and Flowers irregularly planted,  
+
File:0167.jpg|[[Thomas Jefferson]], General plan of the summit of [[Monticello]] Mountain, before May 1768. '''Grove''' is written at the top left on this plan, along with a tally of specific trees.
they have a charming Effect: for here a Person
 
may walk in private sheltered from the
 
Inclemency of cold or violent Winds; and enjoy
 
the greatest Sweets of the vegetable Kingdom:
 
therefore where it can be admitted, if they are
 
continued round the whole Inclosure of the Garden,  
 
there will be a much greater Extent of Walk:
 
and these Shrubs will appear the best Boundary,
 
where there are not fine Prospects to be gained.  
 
  
“These close Groves are by the French termed
+
File:2255.jpg|[[Pierre Pharoux]], “General Map of the honorable Wm. frederic Baron of Steuben’s Mannor”, c. 1793.  The groves are indicated with "i” in the center of the image.
Bosquets, from the Italian word Bosquetto, which
 
signifies a little Wood: and in most of the French
 
Gardens there are many of them planted; but
 
these are reduced to regular Figures, as Ovals, Triangles,
 
Squares, and Stars: but these have neither
 
the Beauty or Use which those have that are made
 
irregularly, and whose Walks are not shut up on
 
each Side by Hedges, which prevents the Eye from
 
seeing the Quarters; and these want the Fragrancy
 
of the Shrubs and Flowers, which are the great
 
Delight of these private Walks; add to this, the
 
keeping of the Hedges in good Order is attended
 
with a great Expence; which is a capital Thing to
 
be considered in the making of Gardens.
 
  
Ware, Isaac, 1756, A Complete Body of Architecture
+
File:0005.jpg|Amy Cox, attr., ''Box '''Grove''''', c. 1800.
(pp. 649–51)
 
  
“The disposition of groves is a consideration
+
File:0728.jpg|William Russell Birch, ''Plan of Springland'', c. 1800. “'''Grove'''” is inscribed in the center, just above the rotunda, along the yellow path.
not enough regarded: we err in it greatly; we plant
 
the trees too close, and we make the walks too
 
narrow. The person who goes into them to be free
 
from the sun is choaked for want of air; and the
 
same closeness occasions a continual damp, very
 
dangerous at such seasons. Every thing in them is
 
gloomy and disagreeable. Instead of this, a kind of
 
cheerfulness may be diffused even there; and we
 
may have solitude, shade, and retirement, without
 
a savage darkness of dreary wet. . . .  
 
  
“Let the plantation be made of selected trees,
+
File:0736.jpg|William Russell Birch, ''[[View]] of the Chapel/Smokehouse at Springland, with Steeple Detail and Plan'', c. 1800. "Seated in the '''Grove'''" inscribed in the left corner.
as we have proposed, and let them have good distance:
 
they will grow more vigorously, and the  
 
walk will be more wholesome.  
 
  
“This space of planting will also give reason for
+
Image:0141.jpg|Thomas Coram, ''The '''Grove''', [[Seat]] of G.A. Hall, Esquire'', c. 1800.
flowering shrubs, which may be scattered here and
 
there about the walk, and will thrive nearly as well
 
as in the open air.  
 
  
“Thus may the groves be constructed ornamentally
+
File:0882.jpg|Anonymous, Plan of Williamsburg, Virginia (copy after Unknown Draftsman’s Plan), after 1800. '''Grove''' is inscribed on bottom left.
to the other parts of the garden, elegant
 
and pleasing in themselves, and fit to form
 
recesses in which to place statutes [sic], temples,  
 
and other structures. . . .  
 
  
“A ragged outside of a grove contrasts the trim
+
File:0090.jpg|[[Thomas Jefferson]], Letter describing plans for a “Garden Olitory,” c. 1804.
cheerfulness of an even walk; and one gives the
 
other lustre. The only rule is, that they be used
 
with moderation and discretion; for they must be
 
considered as foils and extravagancies, not as the
 
essential and regular part of a garden.
 
  
Whately, Thomas, 1770, Observations on Modern
+
File:0734.jpg|William Russell Birch, ''Front of the Aviary/'''Grove''', Springland'', before 1805.
Gardening ([1770] 1982: 36, 46–48)
 
  
“Every plantation must be either a wood,a
+
File:0730.jpg|William Russell Birch, “The '''Grove''' in Springland,” before 1805.
grove,a clump, or a single tree. “A wood is composed of both trees and underwood,  
 
covering a considerable space. A grove consists
 
of trees without underwood; a clump differs
 
from either only in extent. . . .  
 
  
“The prevailing character of a wood is generally
+
File:0969.jpg|[[Thomas Jefferson]], Plan of the grounds at [[Monticello]], 1806. "'''Grove'''" inscribed at center right.
grandeur. . . . But the character of a grove is
 
beauty; fine trees are lovely objects; a grove is an
 
assemblage of them; in which every individual
 
retains much of its own peculiar elegance; and
 
whatever it loses, is transferred to the superior
 
beauty of the whole. To a grove, therefore, which
 
admits of endless variety in the disposition of the
 
trees, differences in their shapes and their greens
 
are seldom very important, and sometimes they
 
are detrimental. . . .  
 
  
“Though a grove be beautiful as an object, it is
+
File:0291.jpg|Anonymous, ''The Ample Grove'', c. 1810–25. "'''grove'''" is inscribed on top right.
besides delightful as a spot to walk or to sit in; and
 
the choice and the disposition of the trees for
 
effects within, are therefore a principal consideration.  
 
Mere irregularity alone will not please; strict
 
order is there more agreable than absolute confusion;
 
and some meaning better than none. ...The
 
distances therefore should be strikingly different:
 
the trees should gather into groupes, or stand in
 
various irregular lines, and describe several figures:
 
the intervals between them should be contracted
 
both in shape and in dimensions: a large
 
space should in someplaces be quite open: in others
 
the trees should be so close together, as hardly
 
to leave a passage between them; and in others as
 
far apart as the connexion will allow. In the forms
 
and the varieties of these groupes, these lines, and
 
these openings, principally consists the interior
 
beauty of a grove.
 
  
Squibb, Robert, 1787, The Gardener’s Calendar for
+
File:0722.jpg|Anonymous, “Barrell Farm,” Pleasant Hill, 1817. A “Poplar '''Grove'''” was located on axis with main house, between the fish [[pond]] on the Barrell property and the river.
South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina
 
  
([1787] 1980: 51)
+
File:0605.jpg|Lieut. Birch, ''Plan of St. Augustine, Fla.'', 1819. “Fish orange '''grove'''” is inscribed left of center.
  
“If you plant the orange trees for a hedge,  
+
File:1183.jpg|[[J. C. Loudon]], "'''Groves'''", in ''An Encyclopædia of Gardening'' (1826), 943, figs. 629a and 629b.
about ten feet will be a good distance; but if
 
intended for an orchard or a grove, twenty feet
 
will not be too much.
 
  
Sheridan, Thomas, 1789, A Complete Dictionary
+
File:2037.jpg|Thomas Kelah Wharton, "'''Grove''' of Poplars with a Memorial Bust, David Hosack Estate, Hyde Park, New York," c. 1832.
of the English Language (n.p.)
 
  
“GROVE, gro’ve. s. A walk covered by trees
+
File:1077.jpg|James Smillie, “Greenwood [[Cemetery/Burying ground/Burial ground|Cemetery]],” in Nehemiah Cleaveland, ''Green-Wood Illustrated'' (1847), flyleaf. “Sycamore '''Grove'''."
meeting above.”
 
  
Deane, Samuel, 1790, The New-England Farmer
+
File:1087.jpg|James Smillie, “Bay-'''Grove''' Hill,” in Nehemiah Cleaveland, ''Green-Wood Illustrated'' (1847), opp. 26.
  
(p. 116)
+
File:2297.jpg|Matthew Vassar, ''Plan of Springside'', 1851." Locust '''Grove''' Drive (18)."
“GROVE, a row or walk of trees planted close,  
 
for ornament and shade.  
 
“Formerly a grove made in regular lines, was
 
considered as most ornamental. But modern
 
improvers are rather disgusted with the uniformity
 
of a grove, and prefer those which appear as
 
if they were the work of nature or chance. As taste
 
alters from time to time, I shall not undertake to
 
determine which are most grand or beautiful. As
 
  
my great object is real improvement and advantage,
+
</gallery>
I shall here attend to groves in regular lines.
 
  
“Groves in gardens are both ornamental and
+
===Associated===
useful. They shade the walks in the borders; so
 
that we may walk in gardens with pleasure, in the
 
hottest part of the day. It is scarcely needful to say
 
these garden groves should consist of fruit-trees;
 
and they should be of the smaller kinds, in a garden
 
of a small size. A double row has the best
 
effect, one near the wall, the other on the opposite
 
side of the walk.
 
  
“In other situations groves of larger trees are
+
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">
preferred. Lanes and avenues leading to mansion
 
houses and other buildings, may be ornamented
 
with rows of trees, either on one, or on both sides:
 
If only on one, it should be the southermost, on
 
account of the advantage of shade. . . .
 
  
“It would be advantageous to the publick, as
+
File:1378.jpg|Batty Langley, “Design of an [[Avenue]] with its [[Wilderness]]es on each Side,” in ''New Principles of Gardening'' (1728), pl. V.
well as to the owners of adjoining farms, if all our
 
roads were lined with groves. They might be
 
either within or without the fences. In the latter
 
case, government might interpose, and secure to
 
the planters those which stood in the roads; and
 
oblige farmers to plant in the roads against their
 
own lands. . . .  
 
  
“If the country were well stocked with these
+
File:1382.jpg|Batty Langley, “An Improvement of a beautiful Garden at Twickenham,in ''New Principles of Gardening'' (1728), pl. IX.
groves, their perspiration would help to abate the
 
scorching heat of the sun, by moistening the
 
atmosphere. They would serve to impede the force
 
of high driving winds and storms in summer,
 
which often tear our tender vegetables, or lay our
 
crops flat to the ground. Our buildings would be
 
also in less danger from them. The winds in winter
 
would not be so keen and violent. The force of sea
 
winds on our fruit-trees would be abated. The
 
snows that fall would be more even on the
 
ground. Roads would be less blocked up, and seldomer
 
rendered impassable by them. But for these
 
last purposes, groves of evergreens will have the
 
greatest effect.  
 
  
“Groves should be planted thick at first, that  
+
File:1384.jpg|Batty Langley, One of two “Designs for Gardens that lye irregularly to the ground House. . . House opening to the North upon a plain [[Parterre]] of Grass,” in ''New Principles of Gardening'' (1728), pl. XI.
the above advantages may be had from them while
 
young. When the trees become so large as to be
 
crowded, they should be thinned.
 
  
Marshall, William, 1803, On Planting and Rural
+
File:1386.jpg|Batty Langley, “Part of a [[Park]] Exhibiting their manner of Planting, after a more Grand manner than has been done before,” in ''New Principles of Gardening'' (1728), pl. XIII.
Ornament (1:119, 145)
 
  
“by Timber Grove
+
File:0036.jpg|Thomas Lee Shippen, Plan of Westover, 1783. The '''grove''' is marked at “&c” at upper left quadrant.
[is meant], a collection of  
 
timber trees only, placed in close order. . . .  
 
  
“THE TIMBER GROVE is the prevailing plantation
+
File:0069.jpg|Samuel Vaughan, Plan of [[Mount Vernon]], 1787.
of modern time. WOODS or COPPICES
 
are seldom attempted: indeed, until of late years,  
 
clumps of Scotch Firs seem to have engaged, in a
 
great measure, the attention of the planter.
 
  
M’Mahon, Bernard, 1806, The American Gardener’s
+
File:2271.jpg|[[Pierre Pharoux]], Plan of Esperanza, 1794, Architectural drawings and maps of Pierre Pharoux, HM 2028
Calendar (pp. 58–59, 63–64)
 
  
“Straight ranges of the most stately trees, are
+
File:2274.jpg|[[Pierre Pharoux]], Plan of Courthouse [[Square]] in Esperanza, Architectural drawings and maps of Pierre Pharoux, 1795, HM 2028.
sometimes arranged on grass-ground in different
 
parts, in contrast with irregular plantations; and  
 
produce a most agreeable effect, which though
 
prohibited in many modern designs, always
 
exhibit an air of grandeur; being arranged sometimes
 
in single rows, others double, or two ranges
 
  
at certain distances, forming a grand walk; in
+
File:0087.jpg|[[Benjamin Henry Latrobe]], ''[[View]] of [[Mount Vernon]] looking to the North'', July 17, 1796.
other parts, several regular ranges of trees together
 
in the manner of groves; the whole combined,
 
forming a diversity, pleasing to the senses, and
 
condusive to health, by exciting to the salutary
 
exercise of walking. . . .  
 
  
“The planting in groves and avenues should
+
File:0710.jpg|J. Weiss, ''Home of George Washington, “The Father of His Country,”'' 1797.
consist principally of the tree kind, and such as are
 
of straight and handsome growth, with the most
 
branchy, full, regular heads, and may be both of  
 
the deciduous and ever-green tribes; but generally
 
arranged separately: groves and avenues, should
 
always be in some spacious open space, formed
 
into grass-ground, either before or after planting
 
the trees; and in planting the groves, it is most eligible
 
to arrange the trees in lines, in some places
 
straight rows, others in gentle bendings, or easy
 
sweeps, having the rows at some considerable distance,
 
that the trees may have full scope to display
 
their branchy heads regularly around; and in some
 
places may have close groves to form a perfect
 
shade. ...  
 
  
“It very frequently happens, that on the spot or
+
File:1998.jpg|Anonymous, Plan of Williamsburg, Virginia (Unknown Draftsman’s Plan), c. 1800.
tract, which is designed for a pleasure-ground, are
 
found large stately trees of considerable standing,  
 
properly situated to be introduced into the design;
 
and sometimes numbers in suitable assemblages,  
 
for constituting groves, or thickets, and some for
 
single standing groups or clumps, &c. which will
 
prove of considerable advantage; these should be
 
preserved with the utmost care, as it would
 
require many years to form the like with young
 
plantations; and although the trees should stand
 
ever so close, irregular, or straggling, with proper
 
address in thinning and regulating them where
 
necessary, they may be made to become beautifully
 
ornamental to the place, and to prevent a
 
considerable expense.
 
  
Nicol, Walter, 1812, The Planter’s Kalendar
+
File:1977.jpg|Charles Varlé (artist), Francis Shallus (engraver), ''Warner & Hanna’s Plan of the City and Environs of Baltimore'', 1801.
  
(pp. 40–42, 259–61)  
+
File:1051.jpg|Daniel Wadsworth, “Monte Video, Approach to the House,” in Benjamin Silliman, ''Remarks Made on a Short Tour between Hartford and Quebec, in the Autumn of 1819'' (1824), pl. opp. 16.
  
“But groves are most generally planted in the
+
File:1052.jpg|Daniel Wadsworth, “Monte-Video,in Benjamin Silliman, ''Remarks Made on a Short Tour between Hartford and Quebec, in the Autumn of 1819'' (1824), frontispiece.
environs of a mansion-house, in parks, and ornamental
 
grounds; and they often form the chief
 
artificial features of a place. Here, indeed, if the
 
place be extensive, they are most in character; and,  
 
if contrasted with woods, copses, and thickets,
 
produce great interest. But in such cases, a grove
 
should never be, or at least appear to be, diminutive.
 
Its situation should always be such, as to
 
exhibit the greatest possible magnitude, when
 
grown up, as well as in its infancy. That the grove
 
may appear to most advantage, it is necessary that
 
it occupy the hang of a hill, or the swell of a rising
 
ground: thus situated, it shows a greatly enlarged
 
canopy of foliage. When placed on level ground,
 
the grove necessarily requires to be more extended
 
in length and in breadth, to produce the same
 
good effects.  
 
  
“We do not wish that our observations
+
File:1097.jpg|Thomas S. Sinclair, “Plan of the [[Pleasure ground/Pleasure garden|Pleasure Grounds]] and Farm of the [[Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane]] at Philadelphia,” in Thomas S. Kirkbride, ''American Journal of Insanity'' 4, no. 4 (April 1848): pl. opp. 280.
respecting grove plantations, should be understood
 
as affecting those clumps, small patches of planting, or groups of trees that are merely
 
intended to beautify the park or the lawn. Were
 
such clumps planted for any other purpose, we
 
doubtless would consider them as very improper
 
appendages: but when properly pruned and
 
thinned, they are very ornamental. The trees in
 
such clumps, however, should never be pruned up
 
in imitation of grove trees, but should be feathered
 
from the bottom upwards. . . .  
 
  
“It has already been observed, that a grove is a
+
File:0771.jpg|[[Frances Palmer]], “Ground [[Plot]] of Brier Cottage,” in William H. Ranlett, ''The Architect'' (1849), vol. 1, pl. 2.
plantation of trees, whatever be their kind or
 
kinds, which are intended to be trained up with
 
straight tall trunks. This circumstance will partly
 
determine its extent. If the eye can penetrate
 
through a plantation, it produces a feeling of
 
nakedness. A grove, then, should be of such an
 
extent, or so particularly situated, that, from no
 
side shall the eye be able to penetrate to the other,  
 
even were the trees arrived at their full stature, and
 
properly trained. This circumstance shows also
 
the propriety of removing the situation of the
 
grove to a considerable distance from the site of
 
the mansion-house: It would be no mark of an
 
improved taste to narrow the prospect, by placing
 
a grove in an improper direction. . . .  
 
  
“A Grove, then, may be constituted of a mixture
+
File:0783.jpg|[[Frances Palmer]], “Waldwic Cottage,in William H. Ranlett, ''The Architect'' (1851), vol. 2, 31.
of trees, like ordinary mixed plantations,—or,
 
more properly, in the form of masses; in which
 
respect, indeed, they may be considered as ordinary
 
plantations. Indeed, they differ from them hardly in
 
any thing, excepting that the principals are to be
 
placed rather more closely together. The principals
 
of a deciduous grove should be placed at the distance
 
of six feet; and the interstices filled up with
 
nurses of larch or firs, till the trees in the whole
 
grove be only from three to four feet apart.
 
  
Abercrombie, John, with James Mean, 1817,  
+
File:1997.jpg|Robert A. Lively, Plan of Williamsburg, Virginia, after Benjamin Bucktrout’s plan, 1867.
 +
</gallery>
  
Abercrombie’s Practical Gardener (p. 479)
+
===Attributed===
  
“A grove
+
<gallery widths="170px" heights="170px" perrow="7">
is distinguished from a wood, by
 
being without underwood. Like the clump, it may
 
be intersected by the garden-walks. . ..
 
  
“A grove may have a fine effect on a level; but a
+
File:0867.jpg|Matthaeus Seutter, “Plan von neu Ebenezer,” 1747.
grove rooted in unequal ground, gently curving
 
along the side of a hill, is capable of more various
 
beauty, by the views and openings from the interior.
 
  
Loudon, J. C., 1826, An Encyclopaedia of Gardening
+
File:0059.jpg|[[Benjamin Henry Latrobe]], Spring house—elevation and plan, from “Buildings Erected or Proposed to be Built in Virginia,” 1795–99.
(pp. 942–43)
 
  
“6813. With respect to the disposition of the trees
+
File:0135.jpg|Unknown, Gardiner Gilman House Overmantel, c. 1800.
within the plantation, they may be placed regularly
 
in rows, squares, parallelograms, or quincunx;
 
irregularly in the manner of groups; without
 
undergrowths, as in groves
 
(fig. 629. a, b); with
 
  
undergrowths, as in woods (c); all undergrowths,
+
</gallery>
as in copse-woods (d). Or they may form avenues
 
(fig. 630. a); double avenues (b); avenues intersecting
 
in the manner of a Greek cross (c); of a martyr’s
 
cross (d); of a star (e); or of a cross patée, or
 
duck’s foot (patée d’oye)(f).”
 
 
 
Webster, Noah, 1828, An American Dictionary of
 
the English Language (n.p.)
 
 
 
“GROVE, n. [Sax. groef, graf,a grave, a cave, a
 
grove; Goth. groba; from cutting an avenue, or
 
from the resemblance of an avenue to a channel.]
 
 
 
“1. In gardening, a small wood or cluster of
 
trees with a shaded avenue, or a wood impervious
 
to the rays of the sun. A grove is either open or
 
close; open, when consisting of large trees whose
 
branches shade the ground below; close, when
 
consisting of trees and underwood, which defend
 
the avenues from the rays of the sun and from violent
 
winds. Encyc.
 
 
 
“2. A wood of small extent. In America, the
 
word is applied to a wood of natural growth in the
 
field, as well as to planted trees in a garden, but only
 
to a wood of small extent and not to a forest.”
 
 
 
Anonymous, 26 December 1828, “Groves” (New
 
 
 
England Farmer 7: 181)
 
 
 
“GROVES.
 
 
 
“These are both ornamental and useful. To
 
plant heights of ground, the sides and tops of
 
which are generally not very good for tillage or
 
pasture, adds much to the beauty of a landscape;
 
and is at the same time highly useful, as it regards
 
the quantities of firewood which may be produced
 
from such spots. Planting rows of trees along
 
highways is also pleasant for shade to the traveller,
 
and profitable to the owner of the soil. The same
 
may be observed, in regard to lanes, and to passages
 
from the highway to the mansion-house.
 
Sugar-maple trees, planted round the borders of
 
meadows, and some straggling ones in them, are
 
very pleasant and profitable, as they do no injury
 
to the growth of the grass. Wherever trees can be
 
planted in pastures and along fences, without
 
doing injury to the growths of the adjoining fields
 
by their shade, this part of rural economy ought
 
never to be omitted.”
 
 
 
Adams, Rev. Nehemiah, 1838, The Boston Common
 
([Adams] 1838: 39–40)
 
 
 
“A dense grove of large evergreen trees of several
 
species, might be planted in the centre of a park or
 
green, as large or larger than the Common, to great
 
advantage. It would form a beautiful ornament to
 
the landscape, by the contrast of its foliage with that
 
 
 
of the deciduous trees, in the summer—and in the
 
winter, by the display of deep verdure when all else
 
was desolated. In the cooler parts of the year, it
 
would furnish a pleasant retreat from the rough
 
winds of the season, and furnish an incentive to out-
 
of-door exercise to those who might otherwise
 
forego its advantages. . . .
 
 
 
“the disposition of the trees on the Common is
 
apt to strike one as too stiff and formal, for the
 
greatest degree of beauty. The science of landscape
 
gardening, our ignorance of which is so easily
 
explained by the small amount of wealth with a
 
comparatively new country can afford to devote to
 
its practice, would have dictated differently. Had
 
its principles been regarded, we should have seen
 
trees of various foliage, here standing alone, and
 
there intermingled in copses and groves—
 
arranged, indeed, so as to imitate nature herself, in
 
her picturesqueness as well as her beauty.”
 
 
 
Ranlett, William H., 1849, The Architect ([1849]
 
1976: 1:5)
 
 
 
“The one [cottage in Design I] here described,
 
stands about fifty yards from the road, fronts eastnorth-
 
east, and is nearly surrounded by fruit trees,
 
which are preferred to forest trees by those who
 
wish to combine utility with ornament, though for
 
shade and ornament, the latter are generally chosen.
 
A grove affords, to a house, a natural protection
 
in both Summer and Winter.”
 
 
 
Jaques, George, January 1852, “Landscape Gardening
 
in New-England” (Horticulturist 7: 36)
 
 
 
“A man of refinement would in these days,
 
scarcely tolerate a geometrical arrangement of
 
grounds of this extent. Such places admit of a
 
winding carriage-way, leading through a fine lawn
 
studded with groups of trees, irregularly circuitous
 
walks, bordered with various shrubbery; here and
 
there a massive forest tree, standing in its full
 
development singly upon the lawn; a summerhouse
 
embowered in the midst of a little retired
 
grove; arabesque forms of flower beds occasionally
 
inserted in the midst of the smooth green of a
 
grass-plot; a vase, pretty even when empty, but
 
better over-flowing with water, which it costs not
 
much to bring in a leaden pipe from some neighboring
 
hill:—such are among the charms which
 
almost seem to make a little paradise of home.”
 
 
 
==Images==
 
  
<gallery></gallery>
+
<hr>
  
 
==Notes==
 
==Notes==
Line 1,286: Line 461:
  
 
[[Category: Keywords]]
 
[[Category: Keywords]]
 +
[[Category: Planting Arrangements]]

Latest revision as of 13:25, April 12, 2021

See also: Copse, Thicket, Wilderness, Wood

History

Fig. 1, Lieut. Birch, Plan of St. Augustine, Fla., 1819.

The term grove referred to both natural and planted arrangements of trees, as indicated by Noah Webster’s definition of 1828. American gardeners such as Bernard M’Mahon (1806) realized the potential of indigenous vegetation and simply thinned existing trees to create so-called “natural” groves. Trees could also be planted where none existed to create “artificial” groves. Whether natural or artificial, groves of trees were an important element in the ornamental landscape, serving aesthetic and agricultural purposes. As Samuel Deane explained in the New-England Farmer (1790), groves could provide shade and windbreaks as well as syrup, firewood, and fruit. As a formal element, groves defined borders of gardens, created backdrops, and, as seen in the sketch of St. Augustine’s orange grove [Fig. 1], offered sites for collecting specific plants.

While generally composed of trees, groves sometimes included shrubs and flowers. These plants were also found in woods, shrubberies, and wildernesses, thus blurring the lines of distinctions between these features—several treatise writers and lexicographers defined groves, for example, as small woods. The overlapping and indistinct uses of the terms “grove,” “wilderness,” and “shrubbery” are exemplified by George Washington’s notations on the garden at Mount Vernon. In 1782, he wrote that he would immediately plant groups of “shrubs and ornamental trees,” and decide later which constituted “the grove and which the wilderness,” implying that the grove would ultimately be the less thickly planted of the two. To add to the confusion, Washington on another occasion referred to the arrangement of trees and shrubs just south of his house as both a grove and a shrubbery. Texts from the 19th century mentioned shrubs and flowers in groves less frequently, because these types of plants were increasingly associated with shrubberies. Thus, as time passed, the distinction between the terms became more clearly drawn.

When attempting to distinguish groves from other features that employed trees (particularly woods and clumps), treatise writers often focused on the question of whether groves should contain undergrowth. Various opinions emerged. Batty Langley argued in New Principles of Gardening (1728) for the inclusion of flowering shrubs with evergreens and deciduous trees. Thomas Whately, however, in Observations of Modern Gardening (1770), believed that a grove consisted of trees without undergrowth in contrast to woods or clumps, which did contain undergrowth. Philip Miller, in The Gardeners Dictionary (1754), considered undergrowth as one factor that distinguished a “closed” grove from an “open” one. The “open” form of the feature was made by planting large trees at a distance that permitted tree tops to knit together to create a shady canopy for the walks below. The “closed” type was composed of a denser planting of trees, shrubs, and flowers that could be arranged in figures cut through and circumscribed by walks.

Fig. 2, Thomas Jefferson, Plan of the grounds at Monticello, 1806.
Fig. 3, Pierre Pharoux, Plan of Esperanza, NY [detail], n.d. A “Public Grove” is situated on either side of the “Common Ground.”

The appellations “open” and “closed,” however, were not common in American discourse, despite Noah Webster's inclusion of such distinctions in his definition. Although these adjectives were not employed to a significant degree, groves fitting these characteristics can be identified. Thomas Jefferson, in his 1807 account of Monticello, described his intention to trim the lower limbs of the trees in his grove, composed of a mixture of hardwoods and evergreens, “so as to give the appearance of open ground,” suggesting an “open” grove [Fig. 2]. Eliza Lucas Pinckney, in 1742, evoked the sense of a “closed” grove when she delineated her collection of trees and flowers. Likewise, in 1776 George Washington suggested a similar type of grove for Mount Vernon, which he described as an arrangement of flowering trees and evergreens underplanted with flowering shrubs.

Fig. 4, Pierre Pharoux, “General Map of the honorable Wm. frederic Baron of Steuben’s Mannor”, c. 1793.

Washington’s account of this “closed” grove also provides a significant clue as to the arrangement of plants. In his 1776 letter to Lund Washington, he specified that the trees “be Planted without any order or regularity,” an aesthetic in keeping with the recommendations of Langley, whose treatises were owned by Washington. The texts of Langley and Miller exemplify the gradual shift away from formal or rectilinear arrangements of trees toward more irregular or “natural” designs. 17th-century groves might be planted in geometrical, or otherwise such patterned figures as “the star, the direct Cross, St. Andrew’s Cross,” described by A.-J. Dézallier d’Argenville (1712). By contrast, |Langley insisted that groves be planted with “regular Irregularity; not planting them. . . with their Trees in straight Lines ranging every Way, but in a rural Manner, as if they had receiv’d their Situation from Nature itself.” In contrast to authors of earlier treatises, 19th-century American writers, including Samuel Deane (1790), Bernard M’Mahon (1806) and the anonymous author of the New England Farmer (1828), advocated regular arrangements. Few if any signs, however, indicate that Americans made “closed” groves in geometrical figures, such as those described in James. Pierre Pharoux’s unexecuted plans for the new town Esperanza, New York [Fig. 3], and for Baron von Steuben’s estate in Mohawk Valley, New York [Fig. 4], are rare exceptions.

Fig. 5, William Russell Birch, “The Grove in Springland,” before 1805.

In either the regular or irregular arrangement, groves were often designed to accommodate garden structures or decorative elements. William Bentley (1791), for example, called attention to the pond with statuary found in the midst of the grove at Pleasant Hill, Joseph Barrell’s estate in Charlestown, Massachusetts; Margaret Bayard Smith (1809) recorded that Jefferson intended to place a monument to a friend in the midst of a grove at Monticello. William Russell Birch situated a Gothic chapel in the grove at Springland [Fig. 5].

In addition to providing settings for decorative objects, groves sometimes displayed rare or unusual tree specimens. At Mount Vernon, Washington contrasted his northern grove, to be made up entirely of locust trees, with his southern grove, to be planted with “clever,” “curious,” and “ornamental” trees and shrubs. At The Woodlands, William Hamilton also filled his groves with rare ornamental trees.

Fig. 6, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Spring house—elevation and plan, from “Buildings Erected or Proposed to be Built in Virginia,” 1795–99.
Fig. 7, Christian Remick, A Prospective View of part of the Commons, c. 1768.

Groves provided shade and settings for walks that linked buildings in a unified composition. They sheltered or highlighted important architectural features. Groves of evergreens or shade trees were well suited for graves and church settings because of the associations with perpetual life. Pinckney and Charles Willson Peale both spoke of the aura of solemnity found in the deep shade and quiet of their respective groves. Alexander Hamilton (1744) called the “darkened and shaded” grove very “romantick.” Architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe depicted a temple deep in a grove, a scene that recalled idealized landscapes associated with the classical past [Fig. 6]. Funerary associations of the grove, dating back to antiquity, made the feature an especially appropriate setting for commemorative monuments and landscape cemeteries.

Groves also connoted cultivation and improvement. They were frequently featured in images, such as Christian Remick’s Prospective View of part of the Commons (1768) [Fig. 7]. In Timothy Dwight’s descriptions of the cultivated American landscape, for example, he repeatedly called attention to groves as marking the transition from the wilder or unplanned landscape to the “improved” or worked landscape. Even A. J. Downing, who avoided the term in his treatise, found it useful in describing his ideal park for the city of New York in 1851.

Anne L. Helmreich


Texts

Usage

  • Smith, John, 1612, describing Native American life in America (quoted in Billings 1975: 215)[1]
“Some times from 2 to 100 of these houses [are] togither [sic], or but a little separated by groves of trees. Neare their habitations is [a] little small wood, or old trees on the ground, by reason of their burning of them for fire.”


“You may wonder how I could in this gay season think of planting a Cedar grove, which rather reflects an Autumnal gloom and solemnity than the freshness and gayty of spring. But so it is. I have begun it last week and intend to make it an Emblem not of a lady, but of a compliment which your good Aunt was pleased to make to the person her partiality has made happy by giving her a place in her esteem and friendship. I intend then to connect in my grove the solemnity (not the solidity) of summer or autumn with the cheerfulness and pleasures of spring, for it shall be filled with all kind of flowers, as well wild as Garden flowers, with seats of Camomoil and here and there a fruit tree—oranges, nectrons, Plumbs, &c., &c.”


  • Norris, Isaac, 22 June 1743, describing Fairhill, seat of Isaac Norris, near Philadelphia, PA (Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Norris Letter Book, 1719–56)
“. . . opening my woods into groves, enlarging my fishponds and beautifying my springs.”


“On the North-part of the Garden is left standing a Grove of Part of the old Wood as it was before the arrival of the Colony there. The Trees in the Grove are mostly Bay, Sassafras, Evergreen Oak, Pellitory, Hickary [sic], American Ash, and the Laurel Tulip.”


  • Hamilton, Alexander, July 14, 1744, describing a house in Rhode Island (1948: 98)[4]
“. . . we passed by an old fashioned wooden house att the end of a lane, darkened and shaded over with a thick grove of tall trees. This appeared to me very romantick and brought into my mind some romantick descriptions of rural scenes in Spencer’s Fairy Queen.”


  • Washington, George, August 19, 1776, in a letter to Lund Washington, describing Mount Vernon, plantation of George Washington, Fairfax County, VA (quoted in Riley 1989: 7)[5]
“Plant Trees in the room of all dead ones in proper time this Fall. and as I mean to have groves of Trees at each end of the dwelling House, that at the South end to range in a line from the South East Corner to Colo. Fairfax’s, extending as low as another line from the Stable to the dry Well, and towards the Coach House . . . from the No. Et. Corner of the other end of the House to range so as to show the Barn &ca. in the Neck. . . these Trees to be Planted without any order or regularity (but pretty thick, as they can at any time be thin’d) and to consist that at the North end, of locusts altogether. and that at the South, of all the clever kind of Trees (especially flowering ones) that can be got, such as Crab apple, Poplar, Dogwood, Sasafras, Laurel, Willow (especially yellow and Weeping Willow, twigs of which may be got from Philadelphia) and many others which I do not recollect at present; those to be interspersed here and there with ever greens such as Holly, Pine, and Cedar, also Ivy; to these may be added the Wild flowering Shrubs of the larger kind, such as the fringe Trees and several other kinds that might be mentioned.”


  • Rush, Dr. Benjamin, July 15, 1782, describing the country seat of John Dickinsen, near Philadelphia, PA (quoted in Caemmerer 1950: 87)[6]
“The ground contiguous to this shed was cut into beautiful walks and divided with cedar and pine branches into artificial groves. The whole, both the buildings and walks, were accommodated with seats.”


  • Washington, George, December 25, 1782, describing Mount Vernon, plantation of George Washington, Fairfax County, VA (quoted in Johnson 1953: 87–88)[7]
“I wish that the afore-mentioned shrubs and ornamental and curious trees may be planted at both ends that I may determine hereafter from circumstances and appearances which shall be the grove and which the wilderness. It is easy to extirpate Trees from any spot but time only can bring them to maturity.”


Fig. 8, Thomas Lee Shippen, Plan of Westover, 1783. The grove is marked at “&c” at upper left quadrant.
  • Shippen, Thomas Lee, December 31, 1783, describing Westover, seat of William Byrd III, on the James River, VA (1952: n.p.)[8]
“The crooked line markd x [on the accompanying drawing] shews you where the garden is which is very large and exceedingly beautiful indeed. The one opposite to it &c is the place where there is a pretty grove neatly kept, from which the walk thro’ one of the pretty gates markd g leads you to the improved grounds before the house.” [Fig. 8]


  • Washington, George, 1785 and 1786, describing Mount Vernon, plantation of George Washington, Fairfax County, VA (Jackson and Twohig, eds., 1978: 4:99, 107, 304)[9]
“[March 7, 1785] Planted all my Cedars, all my Papaw, and two Honey locust Trees in my Shrubberies and two of the latter in my groves—one at each (side) of the House and a large Holly tree on the Point going to the Sein landing. . .
“Finished Plowing the Ground adjoining the Pine Grove, designed for Clover & Orchard grass Seed. . .
“[March 24, 1785] Finding the Trees round the Walks in my wildernesses rather too thin I doubled them by putting (other Pine) trees between each.
“Laid off the Walks in my Groves, at each end of the House. . .
“[April 6, 1786] Transplanted 46 of the large Magnolio of So. Carolina from the box brought by G. A. Washington last year—viz.—6 at the head of each of the Serpentine Walks next the Circle—26 in the Shrubbery or grove at the South end of the House & 8 in that at the No. end. The ground was so wet, more could not at this time be planted there.”


“It was so lately laid out in its present form that it has not assumed that air of grandeur which time will give it. The trees are yet small, but most judiciously arranged. The artificial mounds of earth, and depressions, and small groves in the squares have a most delightful effect.”


“As we were walking on the northern side of the Garden, upon a beautiful glacis, we found ourselves on the borders of a grove of wood and upon the brow of a steep hill. . . At a distance, we could just see three very high arched bridges, one beyond the other. . . We saw them through the grove, the branches of the trees partly concealing them, which produced the more romantic and delightful effect. As we advanced on the brow of this hill, we observed a small foot-path, which led by several windings into the grove. We followed it; and though we saw that it was the work of art, yet it was a most happy imitation of nature. It conducted us along the declivity of the hill, which on every side was strewed with flowers in the most artless manner, and evidently seemed to be the bounty of nature without the aid of human care. At length we seemed to be lost in the woods, but saw in the distance an antique building, to which our path led us. . . At this hermitage we came into a spacious graveled walk, which directed its course further along the grove, which was tall wood interspersed with close thickets of different growth. As we advanced, we found our gravel walk dividing itself into numerous branches, leading into different parts of the grove. We directed our course nearly north, though some of our company turned into the other walks, but were soon out of sight, and thought proper to return and follow us. We at length came to a considerable eminence, which was adorned with an infinite variety of beds of flowers and artificial groves of flowering shrubs. On the further side of the eminence was a fence, beyond which we perceived an extensive but narrow opening. When we came to the fence, we were delightfully astonished with the view of one of the finest cascades in America. . . The distance we judged to be about a quarter of a mile, which being seen through the narrow opening in the tall grove, and the fine mist that rose incessantly from the rocks below, had a most delightful effect.”


  • Adams, Abigail, November 21, 1790, describing Bush Hill, estate of Lt. Gov. James Hamilton, near Philadelphia, PA (1841: 2:207)[11]
“Bush Hill, as it is called, though by the way there remains neither bush nor shrub upon it, and very few trees, except the pine grove behind it,— yet Bush Hill is a very beautiful place.”


“This delightful habitation was situated in the midst of a spacious grove of Live Oaks and Palms, near the strand of the bay, commanding a view of the inlet. A cool area surrounded the low but convenient buildings, from whence, through the groves, was a spacious avenue into the island, terminated by a large savanna. . .
“Our rural table was spread under the shadow of Oaks, Palms, and Sweet Bays, fanned by the lively salubrious breezes wafted from the spicy groves. Our music was the responsive love-lays of the painted nonpareil, and the alert and gay mock-bird; whilst the brilliant humming-bird darted through the flowery groves, suspended in air, and drank nectar from the flowers of the yellow Jasmine, Lonicera, Andromeda, and sweet Azalea.”


“There was a large Orange grove at the upper end of their village; the trees were large, carefully pruned, and the ground under them clean, open, and airy.”


Fig. 9, Anonymous, “Barrell Farm,” Pleasant Hill, 1817. A “Poplar Grove” was located on axis with main house, between the fish pond on the Barrell property and the river.
  • Bentley, William, June 12, 1791, describing Pleasant Hill, seat of Joseph Barrell, Charlestown, MA (1962: 1:264)[13]
“[June] 12. Was politely received at dinner by Mr Barrell, & family, who shewed me his large & elegant arrangements for amusement, & philosophic experiments. . . His Garden is beyond any example I have seen. A young grove is growing in the back ground, in the middle of which is a pond, decorated with four ships at anchor, & a marble figure in the centre. The Chinese manner is mixed with the European in the Summer house which fronts the House, below the Flower Garden.” [Fig. 9]


“On yon bright plain, with beauty gay,
Where waters wind, and cattle play,
Where gardens, groves, and orchards bloom,
Unconscious of her coming doom,
Once Fairfield smil’d. The tidy dome,
Of pleasure, and of peace, the home,
There rose; and there the glittering spire,
Secure from sacrilegious fire.”


  • La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, François Alexandre-Frédéric, duc de, 1795–97, describing Norristown, PA (1800: 1:5–6)[15]
“Very few of them [country houses] are without a small garden; but it is rare to observe one, that has a grove adjoining, or that is surrounded with trees; it is the custom of the country to have no wood near the houses. Customs are sometimes founded in reason, but it is difficult to conjecture the design of this practice in a country, where the heat in summer is altogether intolerable, and where the structure of the houses is designedly adapted to exclude that excessive heat.*
“*The reason is, because the country was universally wooded, when the building of these houses was first begun; and in a country thus wooded, to clear the space round the dwelling-house was just as natural, as to plant round the house in a country otherwise bare of wood.— Translator.”


  • Anonymous, June 14, 1800, describing in the Federal Gazette the estate of Adrian Valeck, Baltimore, MD (quoted in Sarudy 1989: 136)[16]
“A large garden in the highest state of cultivation, laid out in numerous and convenient walks and squares bordered with espaliers, on which. . . the greatest variety of fruit trees, the choicest fruits from the best nurseries in this country and Europe have been attentively and successfully cultivated. . . Behind the garden in a grove and shrubbery or bosquet planted with a great variety of the finest forest trees, oderiferous & other flowering shrubs etc.”


“We then walked over the pleasure grounds in front and a little back of the house. It is formed into walks, in every direction, with borders of flowering shrubs and trees. Between are lawns of green grass, frequently mowed to make them convenient for walking, and at different distances numerous copse of native trees, interspersed with artificial groves, which are set with trees collected from all parts of the world.”


“The canvas at large [of a Garden or pleasure ground] must be Grove, of the largest trees, (poplar, oak, elm, maple, ash, hickory, chestnut, Linden, Weymouth pine, sycamore) trimmed very high, so as to give it the appearance of open ground, yet not so far apart but that they may cover the ground with close shade.”


  • Latrobe, Benjamin Henry, March 17, 1807, describing the White House, Washington, DC (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)
“In removing the ground, it would certainly be necessary to go down in front of the colonnade to the level of about one foot below the bases of the Columns but, it will certainly not deprive this colonnade of any part of its beauty to pass behind a few gentle Knolls and groves or Clumps in its front, and much expense of removing earth would be thereby saved.”


“As we passed the graveyard, which is about half way down the mountain, in a sequestered spot, he told me he there meant to place a small gothic building,—higher up, where a beautiful little mound was covered with a grove of trees, he meant to place a monument to his friend Wythe.”


  • Cuming, Fortesque, 1810, describing a seat in Pittsburgh, PA (1810: 227)[19]
“What adds to the beauty of Mr. Tannehill’s seat is, a handsome grove of about two acres of young black oaks, northwest of his dwelling, through the middle of which runs a long frame bowery, on whose end fronting the road, is seen this motto, ‘1808, Dedicated to Virtue, Liberty, and Independence’ Here a portion of the citizens meet on each 4th of July, to hail with joyful hearts the day that gave birth to the liberties and happiness of their country. On the opposite side of the road to the bowery, is a spring issuing from the side of the hill, whose water trickles down a rich clover patch, through which is a deep hollow with several small cascades, overhung with the willow, and fruit trees of various kinds.”


“I am often pleased with the solemn groves skirting meadows in majestic silence and cool appearance.”


Fig. 10, Daniel Wadsworth, “Monte Video, Approach to the House,” in Benjamin Silliman, Remarks Made on a Short Tour between Hartford and Quebec, in the Autumn of 1819 (1824), pl. opp. 16.
  • Silliman, Benjamin, 1819, describing Monte Video, property of Daniel Wadsworth, Avon, CT (1824: 14–15)[21]
“From the boat or summer house, several paths diverge. . . the first passes round the lake, and generally out of sight of it, for a quarter of a mile, until descending a very steep bank, through a grove of evergreens, so dark as to be almost impervious to the rays of the sun, even at noon day.” [Fig. 10]
  • Bryant, William Cullen, August 25, 1821, describing the Vale, estate of Theodore Lyman, Waltham, MA(1975: 108–9)[22]
“He took me to the seat of Mr. Lyman. . . It is a perfect paradise. . . A hard rolled walk, by the side of a brick wall. . . led us to a grove of young forest trees on the top of [an] eminence in the midst of which was a Chinese temple.”


  • Anonymous, April 17, 1829, “Neglected Grave Yards” (New England Farmer 7: 307)[23]
“I wish to call your attention to the subject of repairing, clearing, and ornamenting the burial grounds of New England. These enclosures are commonly neglected by the sexton, and present to the curious traveller, an ugly collection of slate slabs, of weeds, and rank or dried grass. A small effort in each sexton or clergyman, would suffice to awaken attention, to bring to the recollection of some, and to the fancy of all, a scene which every village should present, a grove sacred to the dead and to their recollection, to calm religious conversation, and to melancholy musing—inclosed with shrubbery, and evergreen, and dignified by the lofty maple, and elm, and oak, and guarded by a living hedge of hawthorn.
“Every sexton should procure some oak, elm, and locust seed, and make it a part of his vocation to scatter it for chance growth.”


  • Ingraham, Joseph Holt, 1835, describing a village near New Orleans, LA (1835: 1:81–82)[24]
“On the left and diagonally from the dwelling house we noticed a very neat, pretty village, containing about forty small snow-white cottages, all precisely alike, built around a pleasant square, in the centre of which, was a grove or cluster of magnificent sycamores.”


  • Martineau, Harriet, May 4, 1835, describing New Orleans, LA (1838: 1:274)[25]
“In the neighbourhood of Mobile, my relative, who has a true English love of gardening, had introduced the practice [of gardens]; and I there saw villas and cottages surrounded with a luxuriant growth of Cherokee roses, honeysuckles, and myrtles, while groves of orange-trees appeared in the background.”


  • Breck, Joseph, February 1, 1836, describing Bellmont Place, residence of John Perkins Cushing, Watertown, MA (Horticultural Register 2: 43)[26]
“The approach to the mansion from the road is by a winding avenue through a fine grove of ancient deciduous trees. The first view of the garden and ranges of glass structure, as we emerged from the grove, was truly magnificent.”


  • B., J., October 1, 1836, “Horticulture in Maine” (Horticultural Register 2: 381)[27]
“We noticed with pleasure, that most of the vicinity of Portland was highly decorated with numerous shade trees, in groves, groups, and single, which the good taste of the proprietors of the soil have spared as yet. Near the city is an extensive, and one of the finest groves of oaks we have ever seen.”


  • Featherstonhaugh, George William, August 20, 1837, describing Pendleton, SC (quoted in Jones 1957: 126–27)[28]
“I went in the carriage with the ladies to the Episcopal Church at Pendleton, a neat temple prettily situated in a shady grove.”


  • Hovey, C. M. (Charles Mason), November 1839, describing Elfin Glen, residence of P. Dodge, Salem, MA (Magazine of Horticulture 5: 404)[29]
“In front of the cottage, and extending to the limits of the garden, on the west, ornamental shrubs and forest trees are thickly planted, and are making a rapid and healthy growth; in a few years they will form a dense and shady grove.”


“This picturesque and beautiful burial-place occupies a grove, formerly an academic and sylvan retreat for the students of Harvard College, near by.”


  • Bryant, William Cullen, April 24, 1843, describing St. Anastasia, FL (quoted in Clarke 1993: 2:161)[14]
“In another part of the same island, which we visited afterward, is a dwelling-house situated amid orange-groves. Closely planted rows of the sour orange, the native tree of the country, intersect and shelter orchards of the sweet orange, the lemon, and the lime.”


Fig. 11, Thomas S. Sinclair, “Plan of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at Philadelphia,” in Thomas S. Kirkbride, American Journal of Insanity 4, no. 4 (April 1848): pl. opp. 280.
“The remainder of the grounds on this side of the deer-park is specially appropriated to the use of the male patients. In this division is a fine grove of large trees, several detached clumps of various kinds and a great variety of single trees standing alone or in avenues along the different walks, which, of brick, gravel or tan, are for the men, more than a mile and a quarter in extent. The groves are fitted up with seats and summer houses, and have various means of exercise and amusement connected with them. . .
“The work-shop and lumber-yard are just within the main entrance on the west—adjoining which is a fine grove, in which is the gentlemen’s ten-pin alley.” [Fig. 11]


  • Hovey, C. M. (Charles Mason), March 1849, describing the residence of Gen. Elias W. Leavenworth, Syracuse, NY (Magazine of Horticulture 15: 98)[32]
“. . . this [the fruit garden] and the house occupy about half of the ground: the other half has been made a most beautiful grove; this was done by a judicious cutting away of whole trees in some places, and by pruning and thinning the branches in others, leaving the whole a picturesque mass, which years of time and labor could not have produced.”


  • Gordon, Alexander, June 1849, describing the residence of Mr. Valcouraam, near New Orleans, LA (Magazine of Horticulture 15: 247–48)[33]
“For instance, within a few minutes walk from where I now write, I could find magnificent groves of magnolias (now in full bloom,) with an abundance of choice trees and shrubs. All that would be required to form the scene into a perfect facsimile of an English shrubbery would be to introduce walks, and judiciously thin out and regulate the mass.”


  • Committee on the Capitol Square, Richmond City Council, July 26, 1851, describing John Notman's plans for the Capitol Square, Richmond, VA (quoted in Greiff 1979: 162)[34]
“The most beautiful feature of the contemplated alterations of the Square, however, will be found in the arrangement of the trees and shrubbery. Instead of planting these in parallel rows, like an ordinary orchard some attention will be paid to landscape gardeninggroves, arbours, parterres, and fountains will combine to render the Square a place of delightful resort.”


“That because it is needful in civilized life for men to live in cities,—yes, and unfortunately too, for children to be born and educated without a daily sight of the blessed horizon,—it is not, therefore, needful for them to be so miserly as to live utterly divorced from all pleasant and healthful intercourse with gardens and green fields. He [Mayor Kingsland] informs them that cool umbrageous groves have not forsworn themselves within town limits, and that half a million of people have a right to ask for the ‘greatest happiness’ of parks and pleasure grounds, as well as for paving stones and gas lights. . .
“In the broad area of such a verdant zone would gradually grow up, as the wealth of the city increases, winter gardens of glass, like the great Crystal Palace, where the whole people could luxuriate in groves of the palms and spice trees of the tropics, at the same moment that sleighing parties glided swiftly and noiselessly over the snow covered surface of the country-like avenues of the wintry park without.”


Citations

Fig. 12, Michael van der Gucht, “Designs of Groves of a Middle Height,” A.-J. Dézallier d’Argenville, The Theory and Practice of Gardening (1712), pl. 4c, n.p.
  • Dezallier d’Argenville, Antoine-Joseph, 1712, The Theory and Practice of Gardening (1712: 48–49)[36]
The French call a Grove Bosquet, from the Italian Word Bosquetto, a little Wood of small Extent, as much as to say, a Nosegay, or Bunch of Green.
WOODS and Groves make the Relievo of Gardens, and serve infinitely to improve the flat Parts, as Parterres and Bowling-greens. Care should be taken to place them so, that they may not hinder the Beauty of the Prospect. . .
“Their most usual Forms are the Star, the direct Cross, S. Andrew’s Cross, and the Goose-Foot; they nevertheless admit the following Designs, as Cloisters, Labyrinths, Quincunces, Bowling-greens, Halls, Cabinets, circular and square Compartiments, Halls for Comedy, Covered Halls, Natural and Artificial Arbors, Fountains, Isles, Cascades, Water-Galleries, Green-Galleries, &c.” [Fig. 12]


  • Langley, Batty, 1728, New Principles of Gardening (1728; repr., 1982: Introduction, 195–203)[37]
“Their [Nobility and Gentry of England] Wildernesses and Groves (when they planted any) were always placed at the most remote Parts of the Garden: So that before we can enter them, in the Heat of Summer, when they are most useful, we are obliged to pass thro’ the scorching Heat of the Sun.
“Indeed, ’tis oftentimes necessary to place Groves and open Wildernesses in such remote Parts of Gardens, from whence pleasant Prospects are taken; but then we should always take care to plant proportionable Avenues leading from the House to them, under whose Shade we might with Pleasure pass and repass at any time of the Day. . .
“Their GROVES (whenever they planted any) were always regular, like unto Orchards, which is entirely wrong; for when we come to copy, or imitate Nature, we should trace her Steps with the greatest Accuracy that can be. And therefore when we plant Groves of Forest or other Trees, we have nothing more to regard, than that the outside Lines be agreeable to the Figure of the Grove, and that no three Trees together range in a strait [sic] Line; excepting now and then by Chance, to cause Variety. . .
General DIRECTIONS, &c.
“I. THAT the grand Front of a Building lie open upon an elegant Lawn or Plain of Grass, adorn’d with beautiful Statues, (of which hereafter in their Place,) terminated on its Sides with open Groves. . .
“VIII. That Shady Walks be planted from the End-Views of a House, and terminate in those open Groves that enclose the Sides of the plain Parterre, that thereby you may enter into immediate Shade, as soon as out of the House, without being heated by the Scorching Rays of the Sun. . .
“IX. That all the Trees of your Shady Walks and Groves be planted with Sweet-Brier, White Jessemine, and Honey-Suckles, environ’d at Bottom with a small Circle of Dwarf-Stock, Candy-Turf, and Pinks. . .
“XVIII. That the Intersection of Walks be adorn’d with Statues, large open Plains, Groves, Cones of Fruit, of Ever-Greens, of Flowering Shrubs, of Forest Trees, Basons, Fountains, Sun-Dials, and Obelisks. . .
“XXV. Groves of Standard Ever-Greens, as Yew, Holly, Box, and Bay-Trees, are very pleasant, especially when a delightful Fountain is plac’d in their Center. . .
Fig. 13, Batty Langley, “Design of a rural Garden, after the new manner,” in New Principles of Gardening (1728), pl. III, opp. 208.
“XXXII. In the Planting of Groves, you must observe a regular Irregularity; not planting them according to the common Method like an Orchard, with their Trees in straight Lines ranging every Way, but in a rural Manner, as if they had receiv’d their Situation from Nature itself.
“XXXIII. Plant in and about your several Groves, and other Parts of your Garden, good store of Black-Cherry and other Trees that produce Food for Birds, which will not a little add to the Pleasure thereof. . .
“XXXV. The several kinds of Forest-Trees make beautiful Groves, as also doth many Ever-Greens, or both mix’d together; but none more beautiful than that noble Tree the Pine.” [Fig. 13]


  • Miller, Philip, 1754, The Gardeners Dictionary (1754; repr., 1969: 588–90)[38]
GROVES are the greatest Ornaments to a Garden; nor can a Garden be complete which has not one or more of these. In small Gardens there is scarce room to admit of Groves of any Extent; yet in these there should be at least one contrived, which should be as large as the Ground will allow it: and where these are small, there is more Skill required in the Disposition, to give them the Appearance of being larger than they really are. . .
“These Groves are not only great Ornaments to Gardens, but are also the greatest Relief against the violent Heats of the Sun, affording Shade to walk under, in the hottest Part of the Day, when the other Parts of the Garden are useless; so that every Garden is defective which has not Shade.
Groves are of two Sorts: viz. open and close Groves: Open Groves are such as have large shady Trees, which stand at such Distances, as that their Branches may approach so near each other, as to prevent the Rays of the Sun from penetrating through them: but as such Trees are a long time in growing to a proper Size for affording a Shade; so where new Groves are planted, the Trees must be placed closer together, in order to have Shade as soon as possible: but in planting of these Groves, it is much the best Way to dispose all the Trees irregularly, which will give them a greater Magnificence, and also form a shade sooner, than when the Trees are planted in Lines; for when the Sun shines between the Rows of Trees, as it must do some Part of the Day in Summer, the Walks between them will be exposed to the Heat, at such times, until the Branches of these Trees meet, whereas, in the irregular Plantations, the Trees intervene, and obstruct the direct Rays of the Sun.
“When a Person, who is to lay out a Garden, is so happy as to meet with large full-grown Trees upon the Spot, they should remain inviolate, if possible; for it will be better to put up with many Inconveniencies, than to destroy these. . . so that nothing but that of offending the Habitation, by being so near as to occasion great Damps, should tempt the cutting of them down. . .
“Close Groves have frequently large Trees standing in them; but the Ground is filled under these with Shrubs, or Underwood; so that the Walks which are made in them are private, and screened from Winds; whereby they are rendered agreeable for walking, at such times when the Air is too violent or cold for walking in the more exposed Parts of the Garden.
“These are often contrived so as to bound the open Groves, and frequently to hide the Walls, or other Inclosures of the Garden: and when they are properly laid out, with dry Walks winding through them, and on the Sides of these sweet-smelling Shrubs and Flowers irregularly planted, they have a charming Effect: for here a Person may walk in private sheltered from the Inclemency of cold or violent Winds; and enjoy the greatest Sweets of the vegetable Kingdom: therefore where it can be admitted, if they are continued round the whole Inclosure of the Garden, there will be a much greater Extent of Walk: and these Shrubs will appear the best Boundary, where there are not fine Prospects to be gained.
“These close Groves are by the French termed Bosquets, from the Italian word Bosquetto, which signifies a little Wood: and in most of the French Gardens there are many of them planted; but these are reduced to regular Figures, as Ovals, Triangles, Squares, and Stars: but these have neither the Beauty or Use which those have that are made irregularly, and whose Walks are not shut up on each Side by Hedges, which prevents the Eye from seeing the Quarters; and these want the Fragrancy of the Shrubs and Flowers, which are the great Delight of these private Walks; add to this, the keeping of the Hedges in good Order is attended with a great Expence; which is a capital Thing to be considered in the making of Gardens.”


  • Ware, Isaac, 1756, A Complete Body of Architecture (1756: 649–51)[39]
“The disposition of groves is a consideration not enough regarded: we err in it greatly; we plant the trees too close, and we make the walks too narrow. The person who goes into them to be free from the sun is choaked for want of air; and the same closeness occasions a continual damp, very dangerous at such seasons. Every thing in them is gloomy and disagreeable. Instead of this, a kind of cheerfulness may be diffused even there; and we may have solitude, shade, and retirement, without a savage darkness of dreary wet. . .
“Let the plantation be made of selected trees, as we have proposed, and let them have good distance: they will grow more vigorously, and the walk will be more wholesome.
“This space of planting will also give reason for flowering shrubs, which may be scattered here and there about the walk, and will thrive nearly as well as in the open air.
“Thus may the groves be constructed ornamentally to the other parts of the garden, elegant and pleasing in themselves, and fit to form recesses in which to place statutes [sic], temples, and other structures. . .
“A ragged outside of a grove contrasts the trim cheerfulness of an even walk; and one gives the other lustre. The only rule is, that they be used with moderation and discretion; for they must be considered as foils and extravagancies, not as the essential and regular part of a garden.”


  • Whately, Thomas, 1770, Observations on Modern Gardening (1770; repr., 1982: 36, 46–48)[40]
“Every plantation must be either a wood, a grove, a clump, or a single tree. “A wood is composed of both trees and underwood, covering a considerable space. A grove consists of trees without underwood; a clump differs from either only in extent. . .
“The prevailing character of a wood is generally grandeur. . . But the character of a grove is beauty; fine trees are lovely objects; a grove is an assemblage of them; in which every individual retains much of its own peculiar elegance; and whatever it loses, is transferred to the superior beauty of the whole. To a grove, therefore, which admits of endless variety in the disposition of the trees, differences in their shapes and their greens are seldom very important, and sometimes they are detrimental. . .
“Though a grove be beautiful as an object, it is besides delightful as a spot to walk or to sit in; and the choice and the disposition of the trees for effects within, are therefore a principal consideration. Mere irregularity alone will not please; strict order is there more agreable than absolute confusion; and some meaning better than none. . . . The distances therefore should be strikingly different: the trees should gather into groupes, or stand in various irregular lines, and describe several figures: the intervals between them should be contracted both in shape and in dimensions: a large space should in someplaces be quite open: in others the trees should be so close together, as hardly to leave a passage between them; and in others as far apart as the connexion will allow. In the forms and the varieties of these groupes, these lines, and these openings, principally consists the interior beauty of a grove.”


  • Squibb, Robert, 1787, The Gardener’s Calendar for South Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina (1787; repr., 1980: 51)[41]
“If you plant the orange trees for a hedge, about ten feet will be a good distance; but if intended for an orchard or a grove, twenty feet will not be too much.”


  • Sheridan, Thomas, 1789, A Complete Dictionary of the English Language (1789: n.p.)[42]
GROVE, gro’ve. s. A walk covered by trees meeting above.”


  • Deane, Samuel, 1790, The New-England Farmer (1790: 116)[43]
GROVE, a row or walk of trees planted close, for ornament and shade.
“Formerly a grove made in regular lines, was considered as most ornamental. But modern improvers are rather disgusted with the uniformity of a grove, and prefer those which appear as if they were the work of nature or chance. As taste alters from time to time, I shall not undertake to determine which are most grand or beautiful. As my great object is real improvement and advantage, I shall here attend to groves in regular lines.
Groves in gardens are both ornamental and useful. They shade the walks in the borders; so that we may walk in gardens with pleasure, in the hottest part of the day. It is scarcely needful to say these garden groves should consist of fruit-trees; and they should be of the smaller kinds, in a garden of a small size. A double row has the best effect, one near the wall, the other on the opposite side of the walk.
“In other situations groves of larger trees are preferred. Lanes and avenues leading to mansion houses and other buildings, may be ornamented with rows of trees, either on one, or on both sides: If only on one, it should be the southermost, on account of the advantage of shade. . .
“It would be advantageous to the publick, as well as to the owners of adjoining farms, if all our roads were lined with groves. They might be either within or without the fences. In the latter case, government might interpose, and secure to the planters those which stood in the roads; and oblige farmers to plant in the roads against their own lands. . .
“If the country were well stocked with these groves, their perspiration would help to abate the scorching heat of the sun, by moistening the atmosphere. They would serve to impede the force of high driving winds and storms in summer, which often tear our tender vegetables, or lay our crops flat to the ground. Our buildings would be also in less danger from them. The winds in winter would not be so keen and violent. The force of sea winds on our fruit-trees would be abated. The snows that fall would be more even on the ground. Roads would be less blocked up, and seldomer rendered impassable by them. But for these last purposes, groves of evergreens will have the greatest effect.
Groves should be planted thick at first, that the above advantages may be had from them while young. When the trees become so large as to be crowded, they should be thinned.”


  • Marshall, William, 1803, On Planting and Rural Ornament (1803: 1:119, 145)[44]
“by Timber Grove [is meant], a collection of timber trees only, placed in close order. . .
“THE TIMBER GROVE is the prevailing plantation of modern time. WOODS or COPPICES are seldom attempted: indeed, until of late years, clumps of Scotch Firs seem to have engaged, in a great measure, the attention of the planter.”


“Straight ranges of the most stately trees, are sometimes arranged on grass-ground in different parts, in contrast with irregular plantations; and produce a most agreeable effect, which though prohibited in many modern designs, always exhibit an air of grandeur; being arranged sometimes in single rows, others double, or two ranges at certain distances, forming a grand walk; in other parts, several regular ranges of trees together in the manner of groves; the whole combined, forming a diversity, pleasing to the senses, and condusive to health, by exciting to the salutary exercise of walking. . .
"The planting in groves and avenues should consist principally of the tree kind, and such as are of straight and handsome growth, with the most branchy, full, regular heads, and may be both of the deciduous and ever-green tribes; but generally arranged separately: groves and avenues, should always be in some spacious open space, formed into grass-ground, either before or after planting the trees; and in planting the groves, it is most eligible to arrange the trees in lines, in some places straight rows, others in gentle bendings, or easy sweeps, having the rows at some considerable distance, that the trees may have full scope to display their branchy heads regularly around; and in some places may have close groves to form a perfect shade. . .
“It very frequently happens, that on the spot or tract, which is designed for a pleasure-ground, are found large stately trees of considerable standing, properly situated to be introduced into the design; and sometimes numbers in suitable assemblages, for constituting groves, or thickets, and some for single standing groups or clumps, &c. which will prove of considerable advantage; these should be preserved with the utmost care, as it would require many years to form the like with young plantations; and although the trees should stand ever so close, irregular, or straggling, with proper address in thinning and regulating them where necessary, they may be made to become beautifully ornamental to the place, and to prevent a considerable expense.”


  • Nicol, Walter, 1812, The Planter’s Kalendar (1812: 40–42, 259–61)[46]
“But groves are most generally planted in the environs of a mansion-house, in parks, and ornamental grounds; and they often form the chief artificial features of a place. Here, indeed, if the place be extensive, they are most in character; and, if contrasted with woods, copses, and thickets, produce great interest. But in such cases, a grove should never be, or at least appear to be, diminutive. Its situation should always be such, as to exhibit the greatest possible magnitude, when grown up, as well as in its infancy. That the grove may appear to most advantage, it is necessary that it occupy the hang of a hill, or the swell of a rising ground: thus situated, it shows a greatly enlarged canopy of foliage. When placed on level ground, the grove necessarily requires to be more extended in length and in breadth, to produce the same good effects.
“We do not wish that our observations respecting grove plantations, should be understood as affecting those clumps, small patches of planting, or groups of trees that are merely intended to beautify the park or the lawn. Were such clumps planted for any other purpose, we doubtless would consider them as very improper appendages: but when properly pruned and thinned, they are very ornamental. The trees in such clumps, however, should never be pruned up in imitation of grove trees, but should be feathered from the bottom upwards. . .
“It has already been observed, that a grove is a plantation of trees, whatever be their kind or kinds, which are intended to be trained up with straight tall trunks. This circumstance will partly determine its extent. If the eye can penetrate through a plantation, it produces a feeling of nakedness. A grove, then, should be of such an extent, or so particularly situated, that, from no side shall the eye be able to penetrate to the other, even were the trees arrived at their full stature, and properly trained. This circumstance shows also the propriety of removing the situation of the grove to a considerable distance from the site of the mansion-house: It would be no mark of an improved taste to narrow the prospect, by placing a grove in an improper direction. . .
“A Grove, then, may be constituted of a mixture of trees, like ordinary mixed plantations,—or, more properly, in the form of masses; in which respect, indeed, they may be considered as ordinary plantations. Indeed, they differ from them hardly in any thing, excepting that the principals are to be placed rather more closely together. The principals of a deciduous grove should be placed at the distance of six feet; and the interstices filled up with nurses of larch or firs, till the trees in the whole grove be only from three to four feet apart.”


  • Abercrombie, John, with James Mean, 1817, Abercrombie’s Practical Gardener (1817: 479)[47]
“A grove is distinguished from a wood, by being without underwood. Like the clump, it may be intersected by the garden-walks. . .
“A grove may have a fine effect on a level; but a grove rooted in unequal ground, gently curving along the side of a hill, is capable of more various beauty, by the views and openings from the interior.”


Fig. 14, J. C. Loudon, "Groves", in An Encyclopædia of Gardening (1826), 943, figs. 629a and b.
“6813. With respect to the disposition of the trees within the plantation, they may be placed regularly in rows, squares, parallelograms, or quincunx; irregularly in the manner of groups; without undergrowths, as in groves (fig. 629. a, b); with undergrowths, as in woods (c); all undergrowths, as in copse-woods (d). Or they may form avenues (fig. 630. a); double avenues (b); avenues intersecting in the manner of a Greek cross (c); of a martyr’s cross (d); of a star (e); or of a cross patée, or duck’s foot (patée d’oye) (f).” [Fig. 14]


GROVE, n. [Sax. groef, graf, a grave, a cave, a grove; Goth. groba; from cutting an avenue, or from the resemblance of an avenue to a channel.]
“1. In gardening, a small wood or cluster of trees with a shaded avenue, or a wood impervious to the rays of the sun. A grove is either open or close; open, when consisting of large trees whose branches shade the ground below; close, when consisting of trees and underwood, which defend the avenues from the rays of the sun and from violent winds. Encyc.
“2. A wood of small extent. In America, the word is applied to a wood of natural growth in the field, as well as to planted trees in a garden, but only to a wood of small extent and not to a forest.”


  • Anonymous, December 26, 1828, “Groves” (New England Farmer 7: 181)[50]
GROVES.
“These are both ornamental and useful. To plant heights of ground, the sides and tops of which are generally not very good for tillage or pasture, adds much to the beauty of a landscape; and is at the same time highly useful, as it regards the quantities of firewood which may be produced from such spots. Planting rows of trees along highways is also pleasant for shade to the traveller, and profitable to the owner of the soil. The same may be observed, in regard to lanes, and to passages from the highway to the mansion-house. Sugar-maple trees, planted round the borders of meadows, and some straggling ones in them, are very pleasant and profitable, as they do no injury to the growth of the grass. Wherever trees can be planted in pastures and along fences, without doing injury to the growths of the adjoining fields by their shade, this part of rural economy ought never to be omitted.”


  • Adams, Nehemiah, 1838, The Boston Common (1838: 39–40)[51]
“A dense grove of large evergreen trees of several species, might be planted in the centre of a park or green, as large or larger than the Common, to great advantage. It would form a beautiful ornament to the landscape, by the contrast of its foliage with that of the deciduous trees, in the summer—and in the winter, by the display of deep verdure when all else was desolated. In the cooler parts of the year, it would furnish a pleasant retreat from the rough winds of the season, and furnish an incentive to out-of-door exercise to those who might otherwise forego its advantages. . .
“the disposition of the trees on the Common is apt to strike one as too stiff and formal, for the greatest degree of beauty. The science of landscape gardening, our ignorance of which is so easily explained by the small amount of wealth with a comparatively new country can afford to devote to its practice, would have dictated differently. Had its principles been regarded, we should have seen trees of various foliage, here standing alone, and there intermingled in copses and groves— arranged, indeed, so as to imitate nature herself, in her picturesqueness as well as her beauty.”


  • Ranlett, William H., 1849, The Architect (1849; repr., 1976: 1:5)[52]
“The one [cottage in Design I] here described, stands about fifty yards from the road, fronts eastnorth-east, and is nearly surrounded by fruit trees, which are preferred to forest trees by those who wish to combine utility with ornament, though for shade and ornament, the latter are generally chosen. A grove affords, to a house, a natural protection in both Summer and Winter.”


  • Jaques, George, January 1852, “Landscape Gardening in New-England” (Horticulturist 7: 36)[53]
“A man of refinement would in these days, scarcely tolerate a geometrical arrangement of grounds of this extent. Such places admit of a winding carriage-way, leading through a fine lawn studded with groups of trees, irregularly circuitous walks, bordered with various shrubbery; here and there a massive forest tree, standing in its full development singly upon the lawn; a summerhouse embowered in the midst of a little retired grove; arabesque forms of flower beds occasionally inserted in the midst of the smooth green of a grass-plot; a vase, pretty even when empty, but better over-flowing with water, which it costs not much to bring in a leaden pipe from some neighboring hill:—such are among the charms which almost seem to make a little paradise of home.”



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Notes

  1. Warren M. Billings, ed., The Old Dominion in the Seventeenth Century: A Documentary History of Virginia, 1606–1689 (Williamsburg, VA: Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, Virginia, 1975), view on Zotero.
  2. Eliza Lucas Pinckney, The Letterbook of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, 1739–1762, ed. Elise Pinckney (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1972), view on Zotero.
  3. Florence (Nisbet) Marye and Philip Thornton Marye, Garden History of Georgia, 1733–1933, ed. Hattie C. Rainwater and Loraine M. Cooney (Atlanta: Peachtree Garden Club, 1933), view on Zotero.
  4. Alexander Hamilton, Gentleman’s Progress: The Itinerarium of Dr. Alexander Hamilton, 1744, ed. Carl Bridenbaugh (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1948), view on Zotero.
  5. John P. Riley, The Icehouses and Their Operations at Mount Vernon (Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, 1989), view on Zotero.
  6. H. Paul Caemmerer, The Life of Pierre-Charles L’Enfant, Planner of the City Beautiful, The City of Washington (Washington, DC: National Republic Publishing Company, 1950), view on Zotero.
  7. Gerald W. Johnson, Mount Vernon: The Story of a Shrine (New York: Random House, 1953), view on Zotero.
  8. Thomas Lee Shippen, Westover Described in 1783: A Letter and Drawing Sent by Thomas Lee Shippen, Student of Law in Williamsburg, to His Parents in Philadelphia (Richmond, VA: William Byrd Press, 1952), view on Zotero.
  9. George Washington, The Diaries of George Washington, ed. Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, 6 vols (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1978), view on Zotero.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 William Parker Cutler, Life, Journals, and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1987), view on Zotero.
  11. Abigail Adams, Letters of Mrs. Adams, the Wife of John Adams, ed. Charles Francis Adams, 3rd ed. (Boston: C. C. Little and J. Brown, 1841), view on Zotero.
  12. 12.0 12.1 William Bartram, Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, ed. Mark Van Doren (New York: Dover, 1928), view on Zotero.
  13. William Bentley, The Diary of William Bentley, D.D., Pastor of the East Church, Salem, Massachusetts (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1962), view on Zotero.
  14. 14.0 14.1 Graham Clarke, ed., The American Landscape: Literary Sources and Documents, 3 vols. (East Sussex, England: Helm Information, 1993), view on Zotero.
  15. François-Alexandre-Frédéric duc de La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, Travels through the United States of North America, the Country of the Iroquois, and Upper Canada, in the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797, ed. Brisson Dupont and Charles Ponges, trans. H. Newman, 2nd ed., 4 vols. (London: R. Philips, 1800), view on Zotero.
  16. Barbara Wells Sarudy, “Eighteenth-Century Gardens of the Chesapeake,” Journal of Garden History 9 (1989): 104–59, view on Zotero.
  17. Frederick Doveton Nichols and Ralph E. Griswold, Thomas Jefferson, Landscape Architect (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978), view on Zotero.
  18. Margaret Bayard Smith, The First Forty Years of Washington Society, ed. Gaillard Hunt (New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1906), view on Zotero.
  19. Fortescue Cuming, Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country (Pittsburgh: Cramer, Spear and Eichbaum, 1810), view on Zotero.
  20. Lillian B. Miller et al., eds., The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family, vol. 3, The Belfield Farm Years, 1810–1820 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991), view on Zotero.
  21. Benjamin Silliman, Remarks Made on a Short Tour between Hartford and Quebec, in the Autumn of 1819 (New Haven, CT: S. Converse, 1824), view on Zotero.
  22. William Cullen Bryant, The Letters of William Cullen Bryant, ed. William Cullen II Bryant and Thomas G. Voss (New York: Fordham University Press, 1975), view on Zotero.
  23. “Neglected Grave Yards,” New England Farmer, and Horticultural Journal 7, no. 39 (April 17, 1829): 307, view on Zotero.
  24. Joseph Holt Ingraham, The South-West, 2 vols. (New York: Harper, 1835), view on Zotero.
  25. Harriet Martineau, Retrospect of Western Travel, 2 vols. (London: Saunders and Otley, 1838), view on Zotero.
  26. Joseph Breck, “Gardens, Hot-Houses, &c., in the Vicinity of Boston,” Horticultural Register, and Gardener’s Magazine 2 (February 1, 1836): 41–47, view on Zotero.
  27. J. B., “Horticulture in Maine,” Horticultural Register, and Gardener’s Magazine 2 (October 1, 1836): 380–86, view on Zotero.
  28. Katharine M. Jones, The Plantation South (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1957), view on Zotero.
  29. Charles Mason Hovey, “Notices of Gardens and Horticulture, in Salem, Mass.,” Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs 5, no. 11 (November 1839): 401–16, view on Zotero.
  30. Nathaniel Parker Willis, American Scenery; Or, Land, Lake, and River: Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature, 2 vols. (London: George Virtue, 1840), view on Zotero.
  31. Thomas S. Kirkbride, “Description of the Pleasure Grounds and Farm of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, with Remarks,” American Journal of Insanity 4, no. 4 (April 1848): 347–54, view on Zotero.
  32. C. M. Hovey, “Notes of a Visit to Several Gardens & Nurseries in Western New York,” Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs 15, no. 3 (March 1849): 97–105, view on Zotero.
  33. Alexander Gordon, “Remarks on Gardens and Gardening in Louisiana,” Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Discoveries and Improvements in Rural Affairs 15, no. 6 (June 1849): 245–49, view on Zotero.
  34. Constance Greiff, John Notman, Architect, 1810–1865 (Philadelphia: Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 1979), view on Zotero.
  35. Andrew Jackson Downing, “The New-York Park,” Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste 6, no. 8 (August 1851): 345–49, view on Zotero.
  36. A.-J. (Antoine Joseph) Dézallier d’Argenville, The Theory and Practice of Gardening; Wherein Is Fully Handled All That Relates to Fine Gardens, . . . Containing Divers Plans, and General Dispositions of Gardens, trans. John James (London: Geo. James, 1712), view on Zotero.
  37. Batty Langley, New Principles of Gardening, or The Laying out and Planting Parterres, Groves, Wildernesses, Labyrinths, Avenues, Parks, &c (London: A. Bettesworth and J. Batley, etc., 1728; repr. New York: Garland, 1982), view on Zotero.
  38. Philip Miller, The Gardeners Dictionary (New York: Verlag Von J. Cramer, 1969), view on Zotero.
  39. Isaac Ware, A Complete Body of Architecture (London: T. Osborne and J. Shipton, 1756), view on Zotero.
  40. Thomas Whately, Observations on Modern Gardening, 3rd ed. (1770; repr., London: Garland, 1982), view on Zotero.
  41. Robert Squibb, The Gardener’s Calendar for South-Carolina, Georgia, and North Carolina (1787; repr., Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980), view on Zotero.
  42. Thomas A. Sheridan, A Complete Dictionary of the English Language, Carefully Revised and Corrected by John Andrews, 5th ed. (Philadelphia: William Young, 1789), view on Zotero.
  43. Samuel Deane, The New-England Farmer, or Georgical Dictionary (Worcester, MA: Isaiah Thomas, 1790), view on Zotero.
  44. William Marshall, On Planting and Rural Ornament: A Practical Treatise. . ., 2 vols. (London: G. and W. Nicol, G. and J. Robinson, T. Cadell, and W. Davies, 1803), view on Zotero.
  45. Bernard M’Mahon, The American Gardener’s Calendar: Adapted to the Climates and Seasons of the United States. Containing a Complete Account of All the Work Necessary to Be Done . . . for Every Month of the Year (Philadelphia: Printed by B. Graves for the author, 1806), view on Zotero.
  46. Walter Nicol, The Planter’s Kalendar (Edinburgh: D. Willison for A. Constable, 1812), view on Zotero.
  47. John Abercrombie, Abercrombie’s Practical Gardener Or, Improved System of Modern Horticulture (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1817), view on Zotero.
  48. J. C. (John Claudius) Loudon, An Encyclopaedia of Gardening; Comprising the Theory and Practice of Horticulture, Floriculture, Arboriculture, and Landscape-Gardening, 4th ed. (London: Longman et al., 1826), view on Zotero.
  49. Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language, 2 vols. (New York: S. Converse, 1828), view on Zotero.
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  51. Nehemiah Adams, Boston Common (Boston: William D. Ticknor and H. B. Williams, 1842), view on Zotero.
  52. William H. Ranlett, The Architect, 2 vols. (1849; repr., New York: Da Capo, 1976), view on Zotero.
  53. George Jaques, “Landscape Gardening in New-England,” The Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste 7, no. 1 (January 1852): 33–36, view on Zotero.

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History of Early American Landscape Design contributors, "Grove," History of Early American Landscape Design, , https://heald.nga.gov/mediawiki/index.php?title=Grove&oldid=40821 (accessed April 23, 2024).

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