BOOK IV. CARRYING DESIGNS INTO EXECUTION. 379 



dered useful or ornamental near to where they lie, they are to be loosened by levers, and 

 placed on sledges and dragged off; and to facilitate this, they may be previously blown 

 in pieces by gunpowder ; or large pits may be dug, and they may be buried near to 

 where they lie. The other obstacles are easily got rid of; large roots may be split with 

 wedges, reft with gunpowder, and drawn out by wrenches ; or, the hydrostatic press 

 applied, as for drawing piles. The use of gunpowder was formerly often attended with 

 accidents to the operators ; but the risk is now greatly lessened, since it has been dis- 

 covered that sand may be poured in, instead of ramming clay and stoney matters over the 

 charge. (Suppl. Encyc. Brit. art. Masting.) 



1 942. Smoothing surfaces. Whatever be the nature of the future improvements, this 

 operation generally takes place to a certain extent after the removal of obstacles. Pits, 

 quarries, pools, &c. are to be filled up ; banks, dykes, artificial mounds, and excrescences 

 to be broken down and scattered about, before the natural surface can be duly under- 

 stood and appreciated, and before drains and other preliminary improvements, as roads, 

 fences, &c., can be conveniently marked out. 



1943. Drawing off superfluous water by subterraneous drains. The theory of this sub- 

 ject has been already noticed (1096.), and as it more properly belongs to agriculture than 

 gardening, we shall confine our remarks to execution. The designer or director of the 

 improvements, having, by the aid of levelling, and consideration of the causes of the su- 

 perfluous moisture, marked out by proper stakes the main drain and lateral cuts, the 

 lowest point or outlet of the former is first to be begun on, and excavated to the proper 

 width and depth. If the soil is very soft, the materials for filling in, or forming the 

 channel, or drain, should have been previously carted there, as this operation, performed 

 on soft ground after the excavation is made, is apt to damage the sides of the drain. No 

 part of the drain ought to be filled, till the whole has been completed, and any errors in 

 the level of its bottom or water-way corrected. The height to which the materials are to 

 be laid, must be regulated by the use to which the surface is to be applied. For 

 permanent pastures, as in lawns and parks, they may be brought near the surface, but 

 in kitchen-gardens, or scenery were digging or trenching are occasionally to take 

 place, they should not come within six inches of the bottom of the loosened strata. As 

 to materials for drains, whatever will form a porous or hollow stratum or vein may 

 be employed ; but round stones are unquestionably the most durable for collecting- 

 drains ; and tubes of earthenware, or built drains of stone or bricks, for drains of con- 

 veyance. The most complete description of master-drain, is one with a built cylinder 

 or barrel of stone or brick below, covered by a vein or vertical stratum of round stones, 

 terminating near the surface in coarse gravel. Wherever much draining is to be done, 

 all the various methods should be considered as detailed in the county surveys, and col- 

 lected in Marshall's Treatise on Landed Property, and Johnston's System of Draining ; 

 and those fixed on which may be considered as most suitable to the particular case. 



1 944. Drawing off superfluous water by surface drains is seldom admissible with good 

 effect in garden-scenery. Ridges, whether broad or narrow, communicate a vulgar 

 field-like character to parks or lawns ; and large open gutters are only ditches. Per- 

 haps the least objectionable mode is to use the mole-plough, or to form underground 

 gutters with the spade on a similar principle. The blade of the spade should be in the 

 form of the letter V, rather blunt at the point, and as each spitful is dug out, half 

 its lower part is to be cut off, and the upper part returned to the gutter, so that no ex- 

 ternal deformity is produced. Such drains, as well as the channels made by the mole- 

 plough, required to be renewed every three or four years, especially if cattle and horses 

 are admitted on the grounds in winter. Hence, many use straw or small faggot-wood 

 to fill the gutters as in Norfolk, or flints as in Kent, gravel as in Berkshire, or cinders 

 and scoriae as in some parts of Lancashire. 



1 945. Forming excavations for retaining water. Previously to commencing this oper- 

 ation, the levels must be staked out with great accuracy, as well as the places indicated 

 from which the larger masses of earth are to be moved or to which they are to be taken. Ex- 

 cavations for water vary in respect to the difficulties and manner of execution, according as 

 they may be intended for running or stagnated water ; for water already existing on the 

 spot, or to be brought there, or according to the nature of the soil and surface. For 

 running water more depends on the design than on the execution ; for a current, if well 

 directed, will, in a short time, form a suitable bed and banks for itself : but for stagnated 

 water all depends on art, both in the design of the shape and the execution of the bed 

 and margin.- Water already existing in a body on the spot generally implies a suitable- 

 ness of soil for retaining it, and the existence of springs for an increased supply, and 

 these serve as useful guides in the course of execution : but where water is to be brought 

 to a situation, it generally implies an unsuitableness both of soil and surface to retain it, 

 and hence requires the greatest attention in the application of art, both as to design and 

 execution. The most suitable surface for water is a hollow or level, and the best soil 

 a clay or strong loam. In all these cases the executive part reduces itself to three oper- 



