392 



PICTURESQUE IMPROVEMENT. 



BOOK I. 



in the same figure. Scarcely any thing can be more ridiculous 

 than the first attempt ; the other is less so, but still despicable 

 with regard to taste or nature. Fig. 2. shews the ground plan 

 of part of the large river — the dotted lines representing the 

 alterations which I proposed and marked out upon the ground. 

 Fig. 3. is intended to give some idea of the effect of these alter- 

 ations, which will be, to give the lower river the character of a 

 lake, and to plant with wood the ponds intended for the other 

 river*. Those alterations were marked out on the grounds at 

 Hare wood Hall, and highly approved of : owing to some very 

 extensive operations of a similar kind now carrying on by the 

 proprietor, they cannot be put into practice at present; but 

 there cannot be a doubt that this will soon be done. 



There are other kinds of appendages which are occasionally 

 placed near water: — these are buildings. No building can be 

 a greater ornament to a river than a bridge, and few objects are 

 so generally pleasing, because few more useful. This idea has 

 been taken advantage of by improvers ; but in general very in- 

 judiciously. Their bridges are always formal, and uncon- 



* And probably retained by Mr. Repton (who was employed there) in confor- 

 mity to his arguments respecting ponds on hills and mountains : see pages 385, 

 386, of this work, and page 44 of Mr. Repton's, where the difficulty of uniting 

 these pieces of water is avowed, and some expedients proposed which shall be no- 

 ticed in the Appendix. 



