314 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



adjoining bank for a short distance, fine little expanses or 

 pools of still water may be formed, which are happily con- 

 trasted with the more rugged course of the rest of the 

 stream. Such improvements of these minor water courses 

 are much preferable to widening them into flat, insipid, 

 tame canals or rivers, which, though they present greater 

 surface to the eye, are a thousand times inferior in the 

 impetuosity of motion, and musical, " babbling sound," so 

 delightful in rapid brooks and rivulets.* 



Cascades and water-falls are the most charming features 

 of natural brooks arid rivulets. Whatevier may be their 

 size they are always greatly admired, and in no way is the 

 peculiar stillness of the air, peculiar to the country, more 

 pleasingly broken, than by the melody of falhng water. 

 Even the gurgling and mellow sound, of a small rill, leaping 

 over a few fantastic stones, has a kind of luUing fascination 

 for the ear, and when this sound can be brought so near as 

 to be distinctly heard at the residence itself, it is peculiarly 

 delightful.f Now any one who examines a small cascade 

 at all attentively, in a natural brook, will see that it is often 

 formed in the simplest manner by the interposition of a few 

 large projecting stones, which partially dam up the current 

 and prevent the ready flow of the water. Such little cas- 

 cades are easily imitated, by following exactly the same 



* The most successfdl improvement of a natural brook that we have evei 

 witnessed, has been efiected in the grounds of Henry Sheldon, Esq., of Tarry- 

 town, N. Y. The great variety and beauty displayed in about a fourth of a 

 mile of the course of this stream, its pretty cascades, rustic bridges, rockworkj 

 etc., reflect the highest credit on the taste of that gentleman. 



t The fine stream which forms the south boundary of Blithewood, on the 

 Hudson, the seat of R. Donaldson, Esq., aifords two of the finest natural cata- 

 racts that we have seen in the grounds of any private residence. Fig. 41 is a 

 view of the larger cascade wliioh falls about 60 feet over a bold, rocky bed. 



