228 Landscape Gardening 



the house which would pass all round the lake, being kept 

 chiefly in the open park but also running through two 

 enclosures. The dotted lines represent the fences to all the 

 plantations or enclosures and the mode of planting will be 

 fully apparent from the sketch. The area of the lake would 

 be a little less than three acres. 



As will be perceived by the plan, the part about the dam is 

 enclosed from the park, and this gives the opportunity of 

 shaping the ground nicely there and of planting it densely. 

 Too frequently, in such cases, the treatment of an embank- 

 ment of this sort presents a singular example of poverty and 

 feebleness of invention. It is commonly made too narrow, 

 too abrupt, or is planted chiefly with forest trees, which, 

 when they grow up, appear thin and meager and sometimes 

 shut out a most charming view over the valley below. 



The first requisite in making a dam is to place it at a point 

 where the valley narrows and the adjoining banks are toler- 

 ably steep and high. A trench of at least four or five feet 

 wide should then be taken out across the hollow and be cut 

 down till solid ground is reached. If this be clay, it will be 

 so much the more satisfactory. The trench should then be 

 filled up with puddled clay and this latter be added as much 

 as possible in a sloping bank on the side towards the intended 

 lake, a good broad embankment being carried up simul- 

 taneously on the outside as the work proceeds, taking care 

 also to build up a chamber and drain in cement for an over- 

 flow at the same time with a strong sluice if it is wished to 

 have the power of drying the lake. 



In planting an embankment, the predominant kinds used 

 should certainly be bushes with only a tree or two here and 

 there or a group of them to assist the outline. Dogwoods 

 and willows are especially to, be recommended. Any walk 

 that crosses the dam of a lake, unless it be a branch stretching 



