The Natural Style in Landscape Gardening 



grow straight up. According to the former prin- 

 ciple it is determined that all lakes shall be in 

 depressed areas and that all rivers shall occupy the 

 valleys instead of the hilltops. This obvious rule is 

 in fact some times violated in so-called landscape 

 gardening. Numerous examples might be men^ 

 tioned of ambitious park makers who have put lakes 

 at the tops of hills in order that the river might 

 come dashing down the cheap artificial slope, 

 though the whole intelligence instantly revolts, 

 knowing that no river, or brook even, could ever 

 occupy such a position. 



Other important principles of natural landscape 

 composition that may be mentioned in illustration 

 are these: That hills and mountains are always 

 wider at their bases than at their tops ; that moun- 

 tains tend to stand in ranks or ranges ; that prairies 

 are nearly always flat; that slow rivers have wide 

 valleys, while swift water runs in narrow valleys; 

 that trees and all other vegetation are larger and 

 denser in the valleys, shrinking in size and impor- 

 tance as we rise in altitude. 



So we might go on with a very considerable in- 



45 



