acknowledgment is quite sufficient, and the objections, which are easily foreseen, are easily answered; for there are various ways in which rudeness may be corrected and disguised, as well as blended with what is smooth and polished, without destroying the marked character of nature on the one hand, or a dressed appearance on the other; of this I have already given some few instances. But as artificial lakes and rivers are usually made, the water appears in every part so nearly on the same level with the land, and so totally without banks, that were it not for the regularity of the curves, a stranger might often suppose that when dry weather came the flood would go off, and the meadow be restored to its natural state. Sometimes, however, it happens, that the bottoms of meadows and pastures subject to floods, are in parts bounded by natural banks against which the water lies, where it takes a very natural and varied form, and might easily from many points, and those not distant, be

⚫ Vide my Letter to Mr. Repton, page 142.

mistaken for part of a river: to such overflowings I of course do not mean to allude, the comparison would do a great deal too much honour to those pieces of water, the banks of which had been formed by Mr. Brown; for it is impossible to see any part of them without knowing them to be artificial.

Among the various ways in which the present style of artificial water has been defended, certain passages from the poets have been quoted*, to shew that it is a great beauty in a river to have the water close to the edge of the grass :

May thy brimmed waves for this

Their full tribute never miss.

Vivo de pumice fontes.

Roscida mobilibus lambebant gramina rivis*.

To which might be added the well known

passage:

Without o'erflowing full.

* Essay on Design in Gardening, page 203.
Claudian de raptu Proserpine.

I have such respect for the feeling which most poets have shewn for natural beauties, and think they have so often and so happily expressed what is, and ought to be, the general feeling of mankind, that wherever they were clearly and uniformly against me, I should certainly, as far as that general sensation was concerned, allow myself to be in the wrong. In this case, however, I can safely agree with the poets, and yet condemn Mr. Brown. With regard to the first instance, I might say, that without thinking of beauty, it is a very natural compliment to a river-god or goddess, to wish their streams always full; but I am ready to admit, that by brimmed waves the poet meant as full as the river could be without overflowing, and that it were to be wished for the sake of beauty, that rivers could always be kept in that state. All this is clearly in favour of an equal height of the water; but can it be inferred from this, or, I will venture to say, from any passage whatever, that Milton, or any other poet, was of opinion that the

banks ought every where to be of an equal height above the water, and the ground equally sloped down to it? If it be allowed, as I presume it must, that no such idea is to be found amongst the poets, I am sure it can as little be justified by natural scenery for let us imagine the river to be brimful, like a canal, for a certain distance from any given point, and then, as it perpetually happens, the bank to rise suddenly to a considerable height; the water must remain on the same level, but the brim. would be changed, and instead of being brimful, according to an idea taken from Mr. Brown, not from Milton, the river though full, would in that place be deep within its banks. But still, it has been argued, when the water rises to the upper edge of the banks, the signs of their having been worn cannot appear: certainly not in Mr. Brown's canals, where monotony is so carefully guarded, that the full stream of a real river would, for a long time, hardly produce any variety: but do rivers, in their natural state never swell with rain or snow,

and, before they discharge themselves over the lowest parts, wear and undermine their higher banks? a distinction, which does not exist in what are called imitations of rivers. Do not the marks of such floods on the higher banks remain after the river has retired into its proper channel, that is, nearly to the height of the lower banks? but even on a supposition of its never overflowing, and never sinking, the same thing would happen in some degree; for it does happen in stagnant water, and must wherever there are any steep banks exposed to the usual effects of rain and frost.

The image in Claudian is extremely poetical, and no less pleasing in reality; the passage relates, however, to a small rivulet, not to a river: but supposing it did relate to a river, are we thence to infer that according to the poet's meaning, nothing but grass ought any where to be in contact with the water, and that the turf must every where be regularly sloped down to it? that there must be no other image?