8o ROCK AND WATER GARDENS 



This is especially important where there is a wide margin 

 of turf. Nothing looks worse than a grass slope falling 

 abruptly to the water's edge. Such an arrangement is 

 fraught with danger, the use of a mowing-machine is 

 rendered difficult, and, most important, breadths of shaven 

 turf set at sharp angles are utterly wrong in principle. 

 By connecting the various levels by short flights of steps, 

 and substituting walls of rough stone or brick for the 

 grass slopes, a much better effect will be gained. A 

 skilled mason is not required to construct such walls, 

 which may be built of the cheapest materials, the crevices 

 furnished with wall and rock plants. In garden courts 

 abrupt changes of level are to be preferred to monotonous 

 slopes and easy gradients ; we gain then the charm of 

 variety, and open up endless possibilities in the way of 

 colour and shadow effects. 



In more elaborate lily-tanks, such as may fittingly 

 occupy the centre of a formal court of some archi- 

 tectural pretension, steps should actually lead into 

 the water itself. A flight of broad, but shallow, stone 

 stairs at either end of the tank cannot fail to greatly 

 enhance its beauty. Their presence is a direct invitation 

 to view the lilies more closely — a note of intimacy, which 

 suggests that the water garden is made for our particular 

 pleasure and interest. High copings and balustrades act 

 as barriers, and prevent the jewelled water surface from 

 forming any close relationship with its surrounding 

 features. Some may argue that steps leading into water, 

 even continuing their way beneath the surface, are an 

 absurdity ; in this case, however, pictorial value far over- 

 rules any utilitarian principles. We have only to remember 

 a flight of weed-stained steps, the boat landing of some 

 sleepy quay side, or the broad and spacious stairway, 

 white and sunlit, which dips into a Venetian lagoon, to 

 realise the idea more closely. 



Tanks which form part of some architectural scheme 



