BRI 



99 



BRI 



evergreen trees. Cuttings. Turfy loam i 

 and peat. 



BRICKS. As the gardener often 

 may require to know how many bricks 

 will be required for an intended struc- 

 ture, it will be a guide for him to know 

 that all bricks sold in England are re- 

 quired by statute (17 Oeo. 3, c. 42) to 

 be eight and a half inches long, four 

 inches wide, and two and a half inches 

 thick. Pantiles, by the same authority, 

 must be thirteen and a half inches- long, 

 nine and a half inches wide, and half 

 an inch thick. 



BRIDGES* are inconsistent with tlie 

 nature of a lake, but characteristic of a 

 river ; they are on that account used in 

 landscape gardening to disguise a ter- 

 mination ; but the deception has been 

 so often practised, that it no longer de- 

 ceives, and a bolder aim at the same 

 effect will now be more successful. If 

 the end can be turned just out of sight, 

 a bridge at some distance raises a belief, 

 while the water beyond it removes 

 every doubt, of the continuation of the 

 river; the supposition immediately oc- 

 curs, that if a disguise had been in- 

 tended, the bridge would have been 

 placed further back, and the disregard 

 tluis shown to one deception gains credit 

 for the otffer. 



As a bridge is not a mere appendage 

 to a river, but a kind of property which 

 denotes its character, the connexion 

 between them must be attended to ; 

 from the want of it, the single wooden 

 arch once much in fashion, seemed 

 generally misplaced ; elevated without 

 occasion so much above it, it was to- 

 tally detached from the river ; and often 

 seen straddling in the air, without a 

 glimpse of the water to account for it, 

 and the ostentation of it as an orna- 

 mental object diverted all that train of 

 ideas which its use as a communication 

 might suggest. The vastness of Walton 

 Bridge cannot without alfectation be 

 mimicked in a garden where the mag- 

 nificent idea of inducting the Thames 

 under one arch is wanting ; and where 

 the structure itself, reduced to a narrow 

 scale, retains no pretension to great- 

 ness. Unless the situation make such a 

 height necessary, or the point of view 

 be greatly above it, or wood or rising 

 ground instead of sky behind it fdl up 

 the vacancy of the arch, it seems an 

 effort without a cause, forced and pre- 

 posterous. 



The vulgar footbridge of planks, only 

 guarded on one hand by a common rail, 

 and supported by a few ordinary piles, 

 is often more proper. It is perfect as a 

 communication, because it pretends to 

 nothing further, it is the utmost sim- 

 plicity of cultivated nature; and if the 

 banks from which it starts be of a mode- 

 rate height, its elevation preserves it 

 from meanness. 



No other species so effectually cha- 

 racterizes a river ; it seems too plain for 

 an ornament, too obscure for a disguise ; 

 it must be for use, it can be a passage 

 only ; it is therefore spoiled if adorned, 

 it is disfigured if only painted of any 

 other than a dusky colour. But being 

 thus incapable of all decoration and im- 

 portance, it is often too humble for a 

 great, and too simple for an elegant 

 scene. A stone bridge is generally 

 more suitable to either, but in that also 

 an extraordinary elevation compepsates 

 for the distance at which it leaves the 

 water below. 



A gentle rise and easy sweep more 

 closely preserve the relation ; a certain 

 degree of union should also be formed 

 between the banks and the bridge, that 

 it may seem to rise out of the banks, 

 not barely to be imposed upon them ; it 

 ought not generally to swell much 

 above their level, the parapet wall 

 should be brought down near to the 

 ground, or end against some swell, and 

 the size and tlie uniformity of the abut- 

 ments should be broken by hillocks or 

 thickets about them ; every expedient 

 should be used to mark the connexion 

 of the building, both with the ground 

 from which it starts, and the water 

 which it crosses. ' 



In wild and romantic scenes may be 

 introduced a ruined stone bridge, of 

 which some arches may be still stand- 

 ing, and the loss of those which are 

 fallen may be supplied by a few planks, 

 with a rail thrown over the vacancy. It 

 is a picturesque object, it suits the situ- 

 ation and the antitjuity of the passage; 

 tiie care taken to keep it still open, 

 though the original building is decayed, 

 the apparent necessity which thence re- 

 sults lor a communication, give it an 

 imposing air of reality. — Whateley. 



BRINING. See Steeping. 



BROADCAST, is a mode of sowing 

 now rapidly falling into disuse in the 

 garden as well as in the field. It has 

 no one advantage over sowing in drills. 



