WATER IN ORNAMENTAL GARDENING. 



229 



rapids, as shown in figure 77, provided there is a very 

 slight fall in the land; or the water may be divided 

 to meet again further on to form islets. Usually with 

 a certain quantity of water at command, there is no 

 more advantageous use to which it can be put for or- 

 nament than this of rills. Those European gardens, in 

 which vast sums of money have been expended in con- 

 structing complicated fountains and water works, are 

 poor examples to be followed in the use of water in gar- 



Fig. 77, — A NATURAL RILL IMPROVED. 



dens; for usually, if, instead, one-fourth of the water and 

 one-tenth of the money had been employed in these in 

 making rills, lakelets, wateifalls, etc., of natural appear- 

 ance, the effects would have been far better. 



One thing to be guarded against in the production of 

 effects Avith artificial water, or, indeed, in artificial ar- 

 rangements of rocks, trees, etc., is the investing of the 

 work with an air of stiffness and a studied appearance so 

 opposite to nature in her most pleasing moods. This 

 defect is not unfrequently apparent in such compositions, 

 and sometimes so bad that the general appearance of the 

 grounds would have been better w4th no attempt what- 

 ever at ornamentation of the kind. A safe guide in this 



