328 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
though detached from the bank, and upon a lower level, 
still appear connected with it, and vary its outline in the 
softest and most pleasing manner. As fragments of the 
same kind will always he detached from ground that is 
undermined, so by their means the same effects may de- 
signedly be produced ; and they will suggest numberless 
intricacies and varieties of a soft and pleasing, as well as of 
a broken kind. 
It will of course be well understood that we have here not 
supposed our proposed lake to be located in a valley that 
must be filled to the brim, or in a tame flat when the water 
would rise to the same level as the adjacent ground. In such 
situations there could be but little room for the display of a 
high degree of picturesque beauty. On the contrary, when 
the surrounding ground in many places rises gradually, or is 
naturally higher than the proposed level of the water, there 
is room for all the variety of banks of various heights, form, 
and outline, which so spring out of the neighbouring undu- 
lations and eminences, and connect themselves with them, 
as to appear perfectly natural and in proper keeping. 
In arranging these outlines and banks, we should study 
the effect at the points from which they will generally be 
viewed. Some pieces of water in valleys, are looked down 
upon from other and higher parts of the demesne ; others, 
(and this is most generally the case,) are only seen from the 
adjoining walk, at some point or points where the latter ap- 
proaches the lake. They are most generally seen from one, 
and seldom from more than two sides. When a lake is 
viewed from above, its contour should be studied as a whole ; 
but when it is only seen from one or more sides or points, 
the beauty of the coup deceit from those positions can often 
be greatly increased by some trifling alterations in arrange- 
