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FLORA AND SYLVA, 



Sometimes a river passes through a garden, 

 more frequently the semblance of a river only ; 

 but in either case, the distinctions between a 

 lake and a river should be preserved. 



" The Lake. — Space is essential to a lake ; it 

 may spread to any extent, and the mind delights 

 even in its vastness. A lake cannot be too large 

 as a subject of description, but the eye receives 

 little satisfaction if form be absent ; the ocean 

 itself is always most agreeable, when, at no 

 great distance, a reach of shore, a promontory, 

 or an island, reduces its immensity into shape. 

 A lake whose bounds are quite out of sight 

 disappoints the eye and confines the imagina- 

 tion ; it is but a waste of waters, neither in- 

 teresting nor agreeable. If the length of a 

 piece of water be too great for its breadth so 

 as to destroy all idea of a lake, the extremities 

 should be considered as too far off" and to given 

 proximity; while at the same time the breadth 

 may be favoured by keeping down the banks. 

 On the same principle, if the lake be too small, 

 a low shore will, in appearance, increase the 

 extent. But it is not necessary that the whole 

 scene be bounded: if form be impressed on a 

 considerable part, the eye can even be pleased 

 to observe a tremulous motion in the horizon, 

 which shows that the water has not there yet 

 attained its termination. Still short of this, 

 the extent may be kept in uncertainty ; a hill 

 or a wood may conceal one of the extremities, 

 and the country beyond it, in such a manner 

 as to leave room for the supposed continuation 

 of so large a body of water. Opportunities to 

 choose this shape are frequent, and it is the 

 most perfect of any : the scene is closed, but 



the extent of the lake is undetermined ; a com- 

 plete form is shown* leaving a wide range to 

 the imagination. Satisfaction depends upon 

 the outline, which is capable of exquisite 

 beauty; and the bays, creeks, and promon- 

 tories forming part of that outline, together 

 with the accidents of islands, of inlets, and of 

 outlets to rivers, are in their shapes and their 

 combinations an inexhaustible fund of variety. 

 A straight line of considerable length may find 

 a place in that variety; and it is sometimes of 

 singular use to prevent the semblance of a river 

 in a channel formed between islands and the 

 shore. But no figure perfectly regular ought 

 ever to be admitted ; it always seems artificial, 

 unless its size absolutely forbids the supposi- 

 tion. A semi-circular bay, though the shape 

 be beautiful, is not natural ; and any rectilinear 

 figure is ugly. But if one line be curved, an- 

 other may sometimes be almost straight ; and 

 to multiply the occasions of showing contrasts, 

 may often be a reason for giving several direc- 

 tions to a creek, and more than two sides to a 

 promontory. Bays, creeks, and promontories, 

 though extremely beautiful, should not, how- 

 ever, be very numerous ; for a shore broken 

 into little points and hollows has no certainty 

 of outline ; it is only ragged, not diversified ; 

 and the distinctness and simplicity of the great 

 parts are hurt by the multiplicity of subdivi- 

 sions : but islands, though the channels be- 

 tween them be narrow, do not so often take 

 from greatness ; they intimate a space beyond 

 them whose boundaries do not appear, and 

 remove to a distance the shore which is seen 

 in perspective between them." 



The Vigour of the Bramble. — Sometimes it 

 is asked how to establish the Bramble as covert ; 

 but, in our own case, and many others, how to pre- 

 vent the Bramble from disestablishing everything 

 else is one of the most hopeless questions we have 

 to deal with. No matter what one plants — the 

 strongest evergreens or bushes — this slow but too 

 steady encroachment of the Bramble is depressing 

 to see ; it covers everything, except trees, in an 

 armed embrace, and one sees the Sweet Briars and 

 Rhododendrons disappearing under the Bramble as 

 under water. The question is, whether one could 

 not make use of this extreme vigour, and find out 

 and cultivate some of the more useful forms among 

 the British Brambles — for the common idea that we 



have only one is quite a mistake. There are num- 

 bers of Brambles in Britain which botanists dispute 

 about a good deal, but, whatever we may think of 

 their arguments as regards varieties of species, there 

 is no doubt that in fruit and appearance many of 

 them do differ essentially. The one that has come 

 most into gardens is the cut-leaved Bramble ; it is 

 an excellent fruit if it gets as fair a chance as other 

 small fruits. If anyone would take the trouble 

 to treat our wild Brambles as the Americans have 

 done theirs, it is very likely we should come into 

 possession of some excellent small fruits. The 

 American kinds which give so much and excellent 

 fruit are simply cultivated forms of their native 

 Brambles. 



