92 Hints on Landscape Gardening 



English, the waters are still the pafties hontcuses^ 

 or eye-sores of the whole, often slimy, very sel- 

 dom quite concealing their artificial origin. 



Several of the rules which I have given for 

 laying out roads and for the outlines of planta- 

 tions can be readily applied to the shape of the 

 water effects. As in the former case one can, ac- 

 cording to the requirements of the terrain and 

 the obstacles that occur, bring in sometimes long 

 and sometimes short, abrupt bends, making pref- 

 erably rounded corners rather than semicircles, 

 sometimes even quite sharp turns where the 

 water is visibly diverted. Both banks of a stream 

 or brook should follow fairly parallel lines, yet 

 with various nuances^ which must be decided, not 

 according to one's fancy, but by the laws deter- 

 mined by its course. Two rules hold good al- 

 most universally : — 



( 1 ) The side toward which the stream turns 

 should have a lower bank than the opposite, be- 

 cause the higher one diverts it. 



(2) Where the current of the water suddenly 

 becomes swift and yet needs to be turned aside 

 lest it break bounds if left free, a sharp bend 

 should be constructed rather than a round one 

 and a steeper shore should signify the conflict. 

 But never follow what our gardeners call "noble 

 lines."' I suppose the terrain to be the same in 



' In Berlin I once saw in a water feature such imaginary lines of 

 beauty actually following a barrier painted green and on an open lawn, 

 without any obstacle which would excuse it, running on in regular 

 curves close by a straight road. This must have doubled the cost with- 

 out arriving at any result but that of making the owner ridiculous. 



