ance; yet in such a situation, and towards the close of day, a cheering one. There is however one kind of scenery by which the expression may be still more naturally suggested; and I can easily conceive that on seeing a piece of made water in its usual naked state, any person might be struck with the uniform whiteness of the water itself, and the uniform greenness, and exact level of its banks, or rather its border; the idea of linen spread upon grass might thence very naturally occur to him, which in civil language he would express by a fine sheet of water. This has always been meant and taken as a flattering expression, though nothing can more pointedly describe the defects of such a scene; for had there been any variety in the banks, with deep shades, brilliant lights, and reflections, the idea of a sheet would hardly have suggested itself, or if it had, he who made such a comparison would have made a very bad one,

“And liken'd things that are not like at all.”

But in the other case, nothing can be more alike than a sheet of water, and a real sheet; and wherever there is a large bleaching ground, the most exact imitations of Mr. Brown's lakes and rivers might be made in linen: and they would be just as proper objects of jealousy to the Thames, as any of his performances*.

I am aware that Mr. Brown's admirers with one voice will quote the great piece of water at Blenheim, as a complete answer to all I have said against him on this subject. No one can admire more highly than I do that most princely of all places; but it would be doing great injustice to nature and Vanbrugh, not to distinguish their

* I happened to be at a gentleman's house, the architect of which (to use Colin Campbell's expression) “ had not preserved the majesty of the front from the ill effect of crowded apertures." A neighbour of his, meaning to pay him a compliment on the number and closeness of his windows, exclaimed, "What a charming house you have! upon my word it is quite like a lanthorn." I must own I think the two compliments equally flattering; but a charming lanthorn has not yet had the success of a fine sheet.

merits in forming it, from those of Mr. Brown.

If there be an improvement more obvious than all others, it is that of damming up a stream which flows on a gentle level through a valley; and it required no effort of genius to place the head, as Mr. Brown has done, in the narrowest, and most concealed part. He has, indeed, the negative merit (and it is one to which he is not always entitled) of having left the opposite bank of wood in its natural state; and had he profited by so excellent a model, had he formed and planted the other more distant banks, so as to have continued something of the same style and character round the lake, though with those diversities which would naturally have occurred to a man of the least invention, he would, in my opinion, have had some claim to a title created since his time; a title of no small pretension, that of landscape gardener. But if the banks above and near the bridge, were formed, or even approved of by him, his taste had

more of the engineer than the painter; for they have so strong a resemblance to the glacis of a fortification, that we might suppose the shape had been given them, in compliment to the first duke of Marlborough's campaigns in Flanders.

The bank near the house which is opposite to the wooded one, and which forms part of the pleasure-ground, is extremely well done; for that required a high degree of polish, and there the gardener was at home. Without meaning to detract from his real merit in that part, but at the same time to reduce it to what appears to me its just value, I must observe that two things have contributed to give it a rich effect at a distance, as well as a varied and dressed look within itself. In the first place, there were several old trees there before he began his works; and their high and spreading tops, would unavoidably prevent that dead flatness of outline, cet air ecrase, which his own close, lumpy plantations of trees always exhibit.

In

the next place, the situation of this spot called for a large proportion of exotics of various heights: those of lower growth, though chiefly put in clumps, of which the edgy borders have a degree of formality, yet being subordinate, and not interfering with the higher growths, or with the original trees, have from the opposite bank the appearance of a rich underwood; and the beauty, and comparative variety of that garden scene from all points, are strongly in favour of the method of planting I described in a former part. It is clear to me, however, that Mr. Brown did not make use of this method from principle; for in that case, he would sometimes at least have tried it in less polished scenes, by substituting thorns, hollies, &c. in the place of shrubs. Of the rich, airy, and even dressed effect of such mixtures, he must have seen numberless examples in forests, in parks, on the banks of rivers; and from them he might have drawn the most useful instruction, were it