36 The Art of Landscape Gardening 



betwixt the pool and the lake. I propose that this 

 water should be rendered more interesting, by making 

 it appear as if the arm of a river proceeded from the 

 lake ; and its termination will easily be hid in the (dis- 

 tant) valley. I hope it will appear that the ideal con- 

 nexion of the two waters may be accomplished, although 

 the actual junction is impracticable. The facility of de- 

 ception arises from the causes already stated, viz. that 

 water is a mirror from which light is strongly reflected, 

 and that of the distance betwixt any light and the eye 

 we form a very inaccurate judgement : it is, therefore, 

 impossible to know, by looking on the surfaces of two 

 distinct waters, whether they are of the same level, 

 unless some ground betwixt them assists the measure- 

 ment. We have, therefore, only to bring the two meers 

 nearer to each other, and give their forms such curv- 

 ature as I have described, to produce that effect of 

 apparent unity, which is all that is necessary in this 

 instance. 



I am aware of the common objection to all efforts 

 that may be deemed deceptions ; but it is the business 

 of taste, in all the polite arts, to avail itself of strata- 

 gems by which the imagination may be deceived. The 

 images of poetry and of painting are then most inter- 

 esting when they seduce the mind to believe their 

 fictions ; and in landscape gardening everything may 

 be called a deception by which we endeavour to conceal 

 the agency of art and make our works appear the sole 

 product of nature. The most common attempts to 

 improve may, indeed, be called deceptions : we plant 

 a hill to make it appear higher than it is ; we open the 

 banks of a brook, to give it the appearance of a river ; 

 or stop its current, to produce an expanse of surface ; 

 we sink the fence betwixt one lawn and another, to 



