LANDSCAPE-GARDENINGLATIN LEXICOGRAPHY. 



599 



propriated. Walks should break off at large 

 angles from each other, and no two lines of them 

 should be seen at the same time. 



There is nothing more difficult in landscape- 

 gardening than the production of a good effect by 

 artificial water. Nature seems extremely jealous 

 of being imitated in her liquid form. These imi- 

 tations will be more or less natural, according to 

 the nature of the ground which is to be appro- 

 priated to the use of water; so that, if a combina- 

 tion in form and extent of water be formed with 

 the surrounding ground and trees, the highest 

 finish will be given to the scenery of the park. 

 Lakes, pools, and rivers, are the only forms which 

 can be advantageously made use of. As with 

 plantations so with lakes, the outline is the chief 

 object of beauty ; and if the indentations in the 

 shores are rather bold and contrasting, than nume- 

 rous, the effect will be much heightened. The 

 points or headlands must be placed so as to be 

 most effective, either from the windows of the 

 house, or from some other more favoured spot for 

 obtaining a view of the grounds. The point of 

 greatest difficulty in the formation of a lake is its 

 head, which being generally the deepest part of 

 the water, and the water there being confined by 

 a low embankment, islands or trees must be so 

 arranged as to destroy the idea of an artificial ter- 

 mination. The shores and bays of a lake should 

 not run parallel to the house, and the various pro- 

 montories ought to be of different forms and 

 heights, and, if possible, composed of different, but 

 harmonizing, colour, of rocks or earth. Islands 

 must not be placed in the centre, but so arranged 

 and formed as if they had been detached from the 

 higher banks of the lake, or deposited by the pas- 

 sage of a river through it ; and even a peninsula 

 properly formed, carrying an extremity of a large 

 plantation into the lake, may have an imposing 

 effect. Aquatic plants, such as the nymphaea, the 

 reeds, the bulrush, and the flag, will produce a 

 picturesque effect in an eddy, or conceal the ter- 

 mination of alow shore. A pool is just a small 

 lake. 



As to the mode of making the shores of the lake, 

 Mr Gilpin says, " In the commencement of the 

 operation, I should recommend (as in forming a 

 plantation) the marking on paper the existing state 

 of things, and adapting the situation, form, and 

 circumstances of the water to be created, so as to 

 produce an harmonious whole; infinitely more im- 

 portant than the size or even the beauty of the 

 water, simply considered. The general form of 

 the water being staked out, the digging should not 

 be taken too close to the form given, but at dif- 

 ferent places should be more or less within it, so 

 as to give an opportunity for the water to form its 

 own line against the bank. Parts also of the in- 

 tended embankment might be left, as first broken 

 down with the pick-axe, rather than be more de- 

 termined by the spade. Upon the same principle, 

 the earth should be so heaped upon the different 

 hillocks, as to allow room for it to fall irregularly 

 towards the bottom, as nothing can be more unna- 

 tural than a hanging level, as the workmen term 

 it. Though the principal varieties of form will be 

 obtained, where the shallowness of the water 

 admits but of the operation, yet in forming the 

 head, it is desirable to give some variety to its out- 

 line, instead of the straight line, or uniform curve, 

 which usually characterises it. One bold promon- 

 tory, shooting into the water, would divide the 



length of the head, especially when it is of consi- 

 derable extent. Great improvement also might, I 

 conceive, be made in the construction of the head, 

 by giving variety to its surface, instead of making 

 it a dead level, as is usually the case. This 

 variety of surface would, moreover, give oppor- 

 tunity for planting near the water, which cannot 

 be safely done on the level surface, for fear of in- 

 juring the puddle bank." 



Of the river, Mr Gilpin says, " the banks of the 

 river, though not so boldly contrasted as in the 

 wildtr scene, will still admit of considerable va- 

 riety in their decoration. The smooth grassy 

 bank, sliding almost imperceptibly into the water, 

 will be relieved by a jutting point, formed with 

 the varieties of water plants, enriched, if circum- 

 stances will allow, with fragments of stone of dif- 

 ferent size and colour ; groups of alder or willow 

 will occasionally break the margin, or the pendant 

 and massive foliage of the wych elm will throw its 

 broad shadow across the retiring reach. These, 

 and such like circumstances, are essential to the 

 completion even of the happiest form that the arti- 

 ficial river can assume." 



In interfering with the character of a natural 

 brook, it should be well considered, before it is 

 sacrificed for a piece of water, whether the latter 

 can be so formed and decorated as to warrant the 

 change. 



LATHAM, JOHN, M .D., F. R. S., &c., an 

 eminent ornithologist, was born at Eltham, in 

 Kent, in 174u; followed the profession of a sur. 

 geon ; and died at Winchester, in 1837. This 

 venerable man devoted himself to his favourite 

 science of ornithology, with undiminished interest, 

 to the close of his long life, which was extended 

 to his ninety-seventh year. His writings on ornitho- 

 logy were very voluminous, and are essential to 

 every student; for, though his views are perhaps 

 limited in some respects, compared to those of 

 more modern authorities, he made important use 

 of the labours of previous naturalists, and added 

 many species to those formerly known. His great 

 works are : " Index Ornithologicus," in two vols. 

 4to. 1790; and "A general History of Birds," in 

 ten vols. 4to. 18211824. 



LATIN LEXICOGRAPHY. The progress of 

 Latin lexicography in modern Europe has not been 

 rapid. The Catholicon of John of Genoa, the ear- 

 liest printed work in this department, first ap- 

 peared in 1460. It was published, as appears from 

 its date, in the infancy of the typographical art; 

 and is supposed on good authority to have pro- 

 ceeded from the press of Faust, who among the 

 Germans is believed to have been the inventor of 

 the art of printing. The name of Faust, how- 

 ever, does not appear in the volume. The author 

 of this lexicon finished his work in 1286, and was 

 probably aided in his labours by the use of the 

 older vocabularies, particularly that of Papias, a 

 Lombard, who flourished in the eleventh century, 

 and also that of Ugo or Uguccio, an ecclesiastic of 

 Pisa, and afterwards archbishop of Ferrara, who 

 lived about a century later. The supposition of 

 an earlier edition of the Catholicon than this of 

 1460, struck from carved blocks of wood, has not 

 sufficient authority. This work was, without 

 doubt, very imperfect, and appears to have been 

 marked with no considerable erudition. The ex- 

 planation of words relating to theology was some- 

 what better than that of others, as might be sup- 

 posed from the profession of those employed in its 



