Formation view at a place where there had been a narrow dell amongst 
of a Pond trees bordering some meadow land, and it was considered by 
some to be very beautiful, and “an improvement”! It is as 
well that we cannot all see beauty from the same standpoint, 
and I am glad to think that the owner and perpetrator were, 
and probably are, deriving pleasure from its contemplation, but 
to me it was an unpleasant shock, because it was not in the 
least like anything formed by nature. Instead of having a 
pond bordered by stones, grass and weeds of all kinds 
should be allowed, with the addition of the Royal Fern and 
the Lady Fern, and Reeds, Rushes, and Primulas in many 
varieties: in such places should be Ranunculus Lingua, the 
yellow Water Buttercup, whose golden beauty and rich green 
are indeed bright ornaments, and where space will permit, some 
Willow trees and Alder bushes, and the water Elder should 
here and there extend their graceful branches. 
Those who have no means of making a water garden best 
appreciate the lost opportunities so frequently met with, and to 
see a plain round pond, with muddy and sodden edges, “ orna- 
mented” by the means of a few ducks, is a truly depressing 
sight—though even this is better than no water at all, for at 
least there is the reflected sky in the moving, if muddy, surface. 
But alas! some of us whose gardens are on high ground, where 
every drop of water has to be drawn from a cold well, or 
caught in butts from the rain-fall, have to be content with a 
small tank or two filled up from time to time by laborious 
pumping. A tank of this kind is best made in cement, and of 
a formal design, with flat stone or brick edges, raised only a 
little above the surface of the ground. Wonders may be done 
with such an arrangement! Shallow tubs may stand therein 
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