102 Landscape (iardeniny 



There is no department of Landscape Gardening which 

 appears to have been less understood in this country than 

 the management of water. Although there have not been 

 many attempts made in this way, yet the occasional efforts 

 that have been put forth in various parts of the country, in 

 the shape of square, circular, and oblong pools of water, 

 indicate a state of knowledge extremely meagre, in the art 

 of Landscape Gardening. The highest scale to which these 

 pieces of water rise in our estimation is that of respectable 

 horse-ponds; beautiful objects they certainly are not. They 

 are generally round or square, with perfectly smooth, flat 

 banks on every side, and resemble a huge basin set down in 

 the middle of a green lawn. 



Lakes or ponds are the most beautiful forms in which 

 water can be displayed in the grounds of a country resi- 

 dence. They invariably produce their most pleasing effects 

 when they are below the level of the house; as, if above, 

 they are lost to the view, and if placed on a level with the 

 eye, they are seen to much less advantage. We conceive 

 that they should never be introduced where they do not 

 naturally exist, except with the concurrence of the follow- 

 ing circumstances. First, a sufficient quantity of running 

 water to maintain at all times an overflow, for nothing can 

 be more unpleasant than a stagnant pool, as nothing is 

 more delightful than pure, clear, limpid water; and sec- 

 ondly, some natural formation of ground, in which the pro- 

 posed water can be expanded, that will not only make it 

 appear natural, but diminish, a hundred fold, the expense 

 of formation. 



The finest and most appropriate place to form a lake, is 

 in the bottom of a small valley, rather broad in proportion 

 to its length. The soil there will probably be found rather 

 clayey and retentive of moisture; and the rill or brook, if 

 not already running through it, could doubtless be easily 

 diverted thither. There, by damming up the lower part 

 of the valley with a head of greater or less height, the water 

 may be thrown back so as to form the whole body of the 

 lake. 



