804 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
anothei, and connect themselves together, and the effect, 
which, surrounding the water, they produce as a whole, he 
will have some tolerably correct ideas of the way in which 
an artificial lake ought to be formed. 
Let him go still further now, in imagination, and suppose 
fhe banks of this natural lake, without being otherwise 
altered, entirely denuded of grass, shrubs, trees, and verdure 
of every description, remaining characterized only by their 
original form and outline ; this will give him a more com- 
plete view of the method in which his labors must com- 
mence ; for uncouth and apparently mis-shapen as those 
banks are and must be, when raw and unclothed, to exhibit 
all their variety and play of light and shadow when verdant 
and complete, so also must the original form of the bamts 
and margin of the piece of artificial water, in order finally 
to assume the beautiful or picturesque, be made to assume 
outlines equally rough and harsh in their raw and incom- 
plete state. 
It occasionally happens, though rarely, that around the 
hollow or valley where it is proposed to form the piece of 
water, the ground rises in such irregular form, and is so 
undulating, receding, and projecting in various parts, that 
when the water is dammed up by the head below, the 
natural outline formed by the banks already existing, is 
sufficiently varied to produce a pleasing effect without much 
further preparatory labor. This, when it occurs, is exceed- 
ingly fortunate ; but the examples are so unfrequent, that 
we must here make our suggestions upon a different sup- 
position. 
When, therefore, it is found that the form of the intended 
lake would not be such as is desirable, it must be made so 
by digging. In order to do this with any exactness the 
