TREATMENT OF WATER. 281 



small, natural lake within his reach, he will have a subject 

 to study, and an example to copy well worthy of imitation. 

 If he examine minutely and carefully such a body of water, 

 with all its accompaniments, he will find that it is not only 

 delightfully wooded and overshadowed by a variety of vegeta- 

 tion of all heights, from the low sedge that grows on its open 

 margin, to the tall tree that bends its branches over its limpid 

 wave ; but he will also perceive a striking peculiarity in its 

 irregular outline. This, he will observe is neither round, 

 square, oblong, or any modification of these regular figures, 

 but full of bays and projections, sinuosities and recesses 

 of various forms and sizes, sometimes bold, and reaching 

 a considerable way out into the body of the lake, at others 

 smaller and more varied in shape and connection. In the 

 height of the banks, too, he will probably observe considerable 

 variety. At some places, the shore will steal gently and 

 gradually away from the level of the water, while at others 

 it will rise suddenly and abruptly, in banks more or less 

 steep, irregular, and rugged. Rocks and stones covered with 

 mosses, will here and there jut out from the banks, or lie 

 along the margin of the water, and the whole scene will be 

 full of interest from the variety, intricacy, and beauty of the 

 various parts. If he will accurately note in his mind all 

 these varied forms — their separate outlines, the way in which 

 they blend into one another, and connect themselves together, 

 and the effect which, surrounding the water, they produce 

 as a whole, he will have some tolerably correct ideas of the 

 way in which an artificial lake ought to be formed. 



Let him go still farther now, in imagination, and suppose 

 the banks of this natural lake, without being otherwise alter- 

 ed, entirely denuded of grass, shrubs, trees, and verdure of 

 every description, remaining characterized only by their orig- 



36 



