CHAPTER X 



COLOUR BY THE WATERSIDE 



There is a willow grows aslant the brook, 

 That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream. 



—Shakespeare. 



IT IS simply as a lover of colour that I approach this 

 subject; not along the path of the landscape archi- 

 tect, no branch of whose art, it seems to me, re- 

 quires at once so deft a touch, such power of imagery, or 

 such sensitiveness to proportion as does the effort to bring 

 to its finest expression the union of shore and water. I 

 venture only to advance the suggestions that the planting 

 of lake or stream margin be after the manner of Nature at 

 her best; that the disposal of trees and shrubs and plants 

 be upon a broad and gracious plan without petty repetitions 

 at regular intervals; that land extending into the water 

 should be planted high to invest the shoreline with some 

 sense of mystery, and that there should be ample stretches 

 where the water, with its enamelled reflections, is plainly 

 to be seen. 



No variegated or purple-leaved shrubs or oddities of any 

 sort are suitable for such situations, and only those species 

 should be chosen that grow naturally by the waterside. 



It has been my good fortune to dwell where I could ob- 



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