232 Landscape Gardening 



and would not admit a boat beneath it, being designed for a 

 stream about twelve or fifteen feet wide. But it might easily 

 be made higher if necessary by obtaining, either naturally 

 or artificially, additional elevation in the side banks. 



Wherever bridges are used, and whatever may be their 

 material or character, they should never appear to spring 

 out of the bare ground or be left without proper support 

 and furniture in the way of trees and shrubs. And the same 

 observation will be applicable to viaducts. This provision, 

 moreover, is not merely necessary as a matter of safety, for 

 no extension of handrails or parapet walls would accomplish 

 the same end. It is demanded artistically to relieve and 

 soften the rigidity of line and to associate the object better 

 with the natural accompaniments beyond. And where em- 

 bankments have to be made at the ends of bridges to carry 

 a walk or road easily over them, the addition of masses of 

 shrubs to mask those embankments is all the more urgently 

 required. The idea thus sought to be conveyed will be fur- 

 ther illustrated by reference to the last three engra\dngs. 



12. Boathouses. — Boats are seldom desirable on a small 

 piece of water, as they occupy it too much, seem out of pro- 

 portion, and reduce its apparent limits. When the water 

 assumes the dimensions of a lake, however, and there are 

 islands upon it, boats become indispensable, and to preserve 

 them some kind of boathouse will have to be supplied. In 

 the grounds or park attached to a Grecian mansion, a boat- 

 house in the shape of a classic temple may be appropriate. 

 Ordinarily some very rustic kind of structure will be decid- 

 edly better. 



A boathouse may take the form of a miniature Swiss cot- 

 tage, and have a reading or shelter room over the part in 

 which the boats are kept, with a good balcony towards the 

 water to afford facilities for fishing. It may thus combine 



