public parfts 293 



diverts all the train of ideas which its use as a com- 

 munication might suggest. The vastness of Walton 

 Bridge cannot without affectation be mimicked in a 

 garden, where the magnificent idea of including the 

 Thames under one arch is wanting, and where the 

 structure itself, reduced to a narrow scale, retains no 

 pretension to greatness. Unless the situation makes 

 such a height necessary; or the point of view be 

 greatly above it, or wood or rising ground, instead 

 of sky behind it, fill up the vacancy of the arch, it 

 seems an effort without a cause, forced and prepos- 

 terous. 



"A gentle rise and easy sweep more closely preserve 

 the relation. A certain degree of union should also 

 exist between the banks and the bridge that it may 

 seem to rise out of the banks, and not barely to be im- 

 posed upon them. It ought generally to swell much 

 above their level ; the parapet wall should be brought 

 down near to the ground, or end against some swell, 

 and the size and the uniformity of the abutments 

 should be broken by hillocks or thickets about them: 

 — every expedient should be used to mark the connex- 

 ion of the bridge both with the ground from which it 

 starts, and the water which it crosses. "' 



The two views of the Boulder or Huddlestone Bridge 

 should perhaps have been included in the chapter on 

 Rocks, but they are so characteristic of the rugged wild 

 scenery of the part of Central Park where they have 



' Thomas Whately, Observations on Modern Gardening. 



