. The art of landscape gardening. same line will serve either for a road or ariver, as it may be filled with gravel or with water. Thisridicule may perhaps be deserved by those engineerswho are in the habit of making navigable canals only,but the nice observer will see this material difference: The banks of a natural river are never equidistant;the water in some places will spread to more than twicethe breadth it does in others. This pleasing irregularitydepends on the shape of the ground through which itflows : a river seldom proceeds far along the middle ofa valley, but generally keeps on on
. The art of landscape gardening. same line will serve either for a road or ariver, as it may be filled with gravel or with water. Thisridicule may perhaps be deserved by those engineerswho are in the habit of making navigable canals only,but the nice observer will see this material difference: The banks of a natural river are never equidistant;the water in some places will spread to more than twicethe breadth it does in others. This pleasing irregularitydepends on the shape of the ground through which itflows : a river seldom proceeds far along the middle ofa valley, but generally keeps on one side, or boldlystretches across to the other, as the high ground resists 134 The Art of Landscape Gardening or the low ground invites its course. These circum-stances in natural rivers should be carefully imitated inthose of art, and not only the effects, but even thecauses, if possible, should be counterfeited, especiallyin the form of the shores : thus, the convex side ofthe river at a [in Fig. i8] should have its shores con-. vex or steep; and the concave side of the river at bshould have its shores concave or flat; because, bythis means, the course of the river is accounted for. There is another circumstance, with respect to lines,deserving attention. The course of a river may fre-quently shew two or more different bends, which donot so intersect each other as to impede the view alongit; and these may be increased in proportion to thebreadth of the river: but in a road, or a walk, espe-cially if it passes through a wood or plantation, a sec-ond bend should never be visible. The degree ofcurve in a walk or road will therefore depend on itswidth ; thus looking along the narrow line of walk, youwill not see the second bend : but in the same curve.
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