ROCK-WORK, 
335 
chap, x.] 
face. All being prepared, the stones may 
be arranged^ the largest at the base ; and the 
upper ones diversified according to the taste 
of the designer. 
The following general rules will apply to 
all the different kinds of rock-work :—never 
to let the stones rest against any kind of 
building; as, when so disposed; they give 
ideas of disorder and insecurity. Never to 
mix up decaying materials; such as roots of 
trees; &c. with durable materials, such as 
rocks and stones; or things evidently natural, 
with those evidently formed by art. Never 
to let the rock-work rise abruptly out of the 
turf, like a great mass of stones discharged 
from a cart; but gradually to prepare the 
way for it, by sinking some fragments of 
stone half-way in the ground, and letting 
them become larger and more numerous, till 
the spectator at last arrives at the principal 
mass. Never to begin to work without 
having some fixed design, whether avowedly 
artificial or apparently natural; and where 
the design is to make what may be called a 
natural rock-garden, like that of the Duke of 
Marlborough at Blenheim, always to take 
