Water 153 



in Buckinghamshire) were all exposed, a walk of near 

 two miles along the banks would be of a tedious length 

 from the want of those changes of the scene, which 

 now supply through the whole extent a succession 

 of perpetual variety. That extent is so large as to 

 admit of a division into four principal parts, all of 

 them great in style and in dimensions; and differing 

 from each other both in character and situation. 

 The two first are the least; the one is a reach of a 

 river, about a third of a mile in length, and a com- 

 petent breadth, flowing through a lovely mead, open 

 in some places to views of beautiful hills in the coun- 

 try, and adorned in others with clumps of trees, so 

 large that their branches stretch quite across, and 

 form a high arch over the water. The next seems 

 to have been once a formal basin encompassed with 

 plantations; and the appendages on either side still 

 retain some traces of regularity ; but the shape of the 

 water is free from them; the size is about fourteen 

 acres ; and out of it issue two broad collateral streams, 

 winding towards a large river, which they are seen 

 to approach, and supposed to join. A real junction 

 is, however, impossible, from the difference of the 

 levels, but the terminations are so artfully concealed 

 that the deception is never suspected; and when 

 known is not easily explained. The river is the 

 third great division of the water; a lake into which 

 it falls is the fourth. These two do actually join; 

 but their characters are directly opposite; the scenes 

 they belong to are totally distinct ; and the transition 



