112 Landscape Gardening 



inviting the gaze - - the banks here slope off gently with a 

 gravelly beach, and there rise abruptly in different heights, 

 abounding with hollows, projections, and eminences, show- 

 ing various colored rocks and soils, intermingled with a 

 luxuriant vegetation of all sizes and forms, corresponding 

 to the different situations. Instead of allowing the sun to 

 pour down in one blaze of light, without any objects to 

 soften it with their shade, the thick overhanging groups and 

 masses of trees cast, here and there, deep cool shadows. 

 Stealing through the leaves and branches, the sun-beams 

 quiver and play upon the surface of the flood, and are 

 reflected back in dancing light, while their full glow upon 

 the broader and more open portions of the lake is relieved, 

 and brought into harmony by the cooler and softer tints 

 mirrored in the water from the surrounding hues and tints 

 of banks, rocks, and vegetation. 



Natural.brooks and rivulets may often be improved greatly 

 by a few trifling alterations and additions, when they chance 

 to come within the bounds of a country residence. Occa- 

 sionally, they may be diverted from their original beds 

 when they run through distant and unfrequented parts of 

 the demesne, and brought through nearer portions of the 

 pleasure grounds or lawn. This, however, can only be 

 done with propriety when there is a natural indication in 

 the grounds through which it is proposed to divert it - - as 

 a succession of hollows, etc., to form the future channel. 

 Sometimes, a brisk little brook can be divided into smaller 

 ones for some distance, again uniting at a point below, 

 creating additional diversity by its varying form. The 

 Abbe Delille has given us a fine image of a brook thus 

 divided, in the following lines: 



"Plus loin, il se separe en deux ruisseaux agiles, 

 Qui, se suivant 1'un 1'autre avec rapiditc, 

 Dispulent de vitesse et de limpidite; 

 Puis, rejoignant tous deux le lit qui Ics rassemble, 

 Murmurent enehantes de voyager ensemble. 

 Ainsi, toujours errant de detour en detour, 

 Muol, bruyant, paisible, inquiet tour a tour, 

 Sous mille aspects divers son cours se renouvelle." 



