406 



PICTURESQUE 



IMPROVEMENT. 



BOOK r. 



% Spreading the earth and managing the surrounding surf ace. — 

 In modern landscape gardening, whatever be the natural cha- 

 racter or tendency of the surrounding surface, it is reduced, by 

 levelling, to smooth lawn or pasture, sloping gradually from the 

 margin of the water. This occasions a prodigious expense; 

 and what is worse, it is commonly uncertain, and only to be 

 calculated after the whole is finished. The number of cubical 

 yards to be removed in excavation may be calculated within a 

 few pence of certainty; but the operations of levelling are in- 

 tricate, tedious, and extensive; and hence it is commonly in 

 this particular that the expense of made water exceeds calcu- 

 lation. 



» 



If an} r one plan ever had the advantage over another, cer- 

 tainly picturesque or natural pieces of water have the complete 

 superiority over those alluded to with regard to expense. In 

 them the natural character of the ground is preserved, or only 

 improved, and consequently no expense of levelling is incur- 

 red; and the superfluous earth arising from the excavation is 

 formed into irregular inequalities, or distributed along the 

 banks in such a way as to increase their character and pictu- 

 resqueness. Numerous striking instances of unnecessary ex- 

 pense being incurred, and little beauty produced, could be 

 given from all parts of the island : that at Donnington might 

 tiave been much more picturesque — presented a larger sur- 



