PART VII. 



PICTURESQUE IMPROVEMENT. 



399 



nerj. In some cases they are quite inadmissible, as in all 

 rivers or brooks without stones or rocks in their beds or mar- 

 gins* ; and in others where these are few, or where the ground 

 on each side is level, they can never be made of great magni- 

 tude. An attention to nature, however, is sufficient to guide 

 us in this, as in every thing else relating to the subject; — a sub- 

 ject which is so highly interesting and comprehensive, that to 

 treat it with much amplification would far exceed the limits to 

 which I am confined in this Work. 



5. The picturesque improvement of pieces of water already ex- 

 isting. — This will certainly be attended to by all who at pre- 

 sent have artificial waters, whether in imitation of rivers, lakes, 

 ponds, or brooks, and who are in the habit of making pictu- 

 resque improvements upon their grounds. Such proprietors may 

 be assured, that no part can stand in greater need of alteration 

 than made water; and should they go on with others (except 

 planting, which however is commonly grown up in such places 

 as I allude to) to the neglect of this, they will certainly not 

 merit the approbation of men of taste; for taste always prefers 



. * The grounds of Thoresby, near Worksop, are of this description ; but mark 

 the ingenuity of Mr. Repton's argument : " The violence done to nature by the in- 

 troduction of rock scenery at Thoresby is the more allowable, since it is within a 

 short distance of Derbyshire, the most romantic county in England ; while from 

 the awful and picturesque scenery of Creswell Craigs such strata and ledges of stone, 

 covered with their natural vegetation, may be transported thither, that no eye 

 can discover the fraud" ! This short distance is nearly thirty miles ! ! 



