Sckell 's Landscape- Gardeniiig. 413 



small, because it is well known that they both appear larger 

 from optical deception. 



8. No lake ought to be formed that does not contain 18 acres; 

 otherwise it should be a pond, which does not require so great 

 an extent of surface. Rippling brooks winding through forests 

 and groves, sometimes approaching the road, and sometimes 

 retiring in still darkness ; brooks that suddenly rush out from 

 among rocks, and then peacefully and quietly glide along till 

 they are gratefully received in the beautiful valleys, where 

 they are confined by banks, which are ornamented with an in- 

 finitely rich variety of flowers, thereby rendering the water almost 

 invisible : brooks trickling over rocks, which supply lakes or 

 ponds; and others which, without a gushing sound, flow in solemn 

 silence under over-hanging shrubs, and invite for fishing, 

 rowing, or bathing, are suitable for imitation as welcome ob- 

 jects in a garden, giving to it life and activity. Natural 

 springs, too, should have their place in a garden under beau- 

 tiful masses of rocks ; or they should have an urn, an inscription 

 to love or friendship, or a weeping willow, as all these objects 

 invite to a peculiar kind of repose. 



9. Woods, sacred groves, thickets, and flowering shrubs, 

 among which Flora and her children are seen to sport in unre- 

 strained freedom, and surprise the passenger by their agreeable 

 display of colours and delightful perfume ; meadows and valleys, 

 with a turf covered with the richest display of flowers ; gently 

 sloping hills, crowned, when they are small, with beautiful trees 

 and shrubs ; all these, also, belong to the natural garden, and 

 admit of the possibility of imitation. 



10. The garden should also contain rocks, however difficult 

 it may be so to arrange and group them as to make them appear 

 as if they had been placed there by nature. I shall hereafter 

 treat of rockwork, when 1 shall give, from my own experience, 

 instructions for the most natural manner of executing such an 

 undertaking. 



1 1. Gi'ottoes also, although among the most difficult objects of 

 nature to imitate, ought to be included in the garden, and ought 

 never to be excluded from it where there is an opportunity of erect- 

 ing them. There are several tolerably successful attempts of this 

 kind in England ; among which the grotto at Pains Hill, and that 

 at Stourhead near Salisbury, may be reckoned the best. The 

 latter partakes more of art than of nature; which has induced 

 me to believe that the idea and the form have been partially bor- 

 rowed from the Egerian fountain in Rome. This grotto stands 



O ..." 



on the banks of a lake ; and the back part of it is against a perpen- 

 dicular rock, formed there by nature, and over which, in former 

 times, a celebrated medicinal water flowed. At the foot of this 



