138 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
yet there are several shallow shores on both sides, at which the cattle 
drink, and often in the summer months congregate under the shade of 
the overhanging trees, to cool their limbs, and escape from their tor¬ 
mentors, the gad-flies, and Conops calcitrans. 
The management of w r ater is one of the most difficult operations of a 
landscape gardener’s profession. Brown’s great work of lake-making at 
Blenheim, will transmit his name with honour to posterity; but many 
of his minor attempts, as well as those of his followers, are perfectly 
jejune and ridiculous. In some places, small natural pools have been 
drawn out to represent a winding river, passing before the drawing¬ 
room windows, with both extremities deeply hidden in evergreen shrubs; 
■while the stillness, colour, and sluggish appearance of the water betrays 
at first view its stagnant character. At other places, these accidental 
ponds, or small brooks, are formed into a rectangular “sheet of water,” 
or curved canal, with smooth and trimly cut edges, as vapid and bald 
as a field of snow. These doings are really childish ; because whatever 
is done by a garden artist, should either be boldly acknowledged as a 
work of art, and executed accordingly ; or, if nature is to be imitated, 
it should be on such a scale as not only to impose on a stranger, but 
to delight the eye, and satisfy the mind of the proprietor, whose taste 
and money have accomplished the work. 
Besides the vivid reflections from the sky, and the deeper ones of the 
trees, and cattle, and figures on its banks, the lake is useful in other 
respects; as affording the pleasure of rowing, or sailing a handsome 
cutter, and the amusement of angling: nay, more ; by putting in a 
draw-net occasionally, a fair haul of trout, jack, and tench, are caught 
to supply the cook ; and what are not wanted are transferred to a lock¬ 
up stew, constructed at the head of the lake. 
At the head of this piece of water, the scenery is pleasingly varied 
by a change of trees. The course of the rivulet above the lake, is^down 
a narrow kind of dell having rather steep banks. The carriage road to 
the back entrance into the park, passes over a neat stone bridge of three 
arches, near the head of the lake, whence the latter is seen to great 
advantage. The banks, both above and for a little way below the 
bridge, are planted with Weymouth pines, which here grow luxuri¬ 
antly, in consequence of their roots reaching the water, and ranging in 
the peat-earthy soil by the sides of the brook. A few fine weeping- 
willows skirt the pines, and hang partly over the water; and the bridge, 
viewed from any point below, appearing placed in a recess, looks ex¬ 
tremely well, being so decidedly connected with that element which 
renders bridges at all necessary. A bridge without water is like a ship 
in the midst of a city ! Sometimes, indeed, the crest of a bridge, or a 
