155 



y 



however unnatural its situation; and therefore in ma. ^ , 



under his direction I have found water on the tops of hills, and 



have been obliged to remove it into lower -round, because the 



deception was not sufficiently complete to salislv the mind, ^ 

 well as the eye. Common observers suppose thai water is 



usually found, and therefore is always most natural, in 

 lowest ground; but a moment's consideration will evince the 



error of this supposition. Lakes and Pools are generallj ii 

 the highest situations in their respective countries; and with 

 out such a provision in Nature, the World could not be sup 

 plied with Rivers: these have their source in the highest moun 

 tains; and, after innumerable checks to retard and expand 



waters, they gradually descend towards the sea. 



If Nature be the model for Art in the composition of Land- 

 scape, we must imitate her process as well as her effects: Water, 

 by its own power of gravitation, seeks the lowest ground, an< 

 runs along the valleys.* If in its course the water meets with 

 any obstruction, it spreads itself into a lake or meer, proportion- 

 ate to the magnitude of the obstruction; and thus we often see 



* Indeed I have sometimes fancied, that, as action and reaction are at ike, and as 

 cause and effect often change their situations, so valleys are increased in depth by the 

 course of waters perpetually passing along them : thus if the water only displaces one 

 inch of soil in each year, it will amount to five hundred feet in six thousand years, and 

 this is equal to the deepest valleys. In loose soils the sides of the Hills will gradually 

 wash down, and form open valleys ; in hard soils, they will become narrow valleys : 

 but ravines I suppose to be the effect of sudden convulsions from fire or steam, and not 

 made by any gradual abrasion of the surface. 



* 



