The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Art Of Landscape Architecture
The projecting tongues of land must for the greater part run into pointed, not rounded, ends, for I cannot sufficiently dwell on the fact that no line in picturesque landscape is more unpropitious than that taken from the circle, especially in any great extent of space.
A green shore which ends quite in a point and is at its termination almost in the same line as the water, and beyond which the water appears on the other side, makes quite a charming variety, especially when a few high-stemmed trees stand on it, and where one looks through under the foliage. If any important object is in the neighbourhood of a building, mountain, or conspicuous tree, plenty of room should be given for its reflection in the water, and attention drawn to the picture shimmering in its depths by a path or bench placed there for the purpose.
"The form f is by no means the worst which I have seen carried out, nor will I say that g is the best for execution; but the latter will assuredly make a more picturesque effect, and from no point of view will the end of the water be visible, which is one of the chief considerations."'
The interesting part of the above dissertation is that Prince Puckler carried out his principles and directions, as they are here set forth, in an entirely successful manner on his own estate at Muskau, where the results can be seen to-day after the lapse of nearly a century.
Not long before the time of Prince Puckler we find Humphry Repton in The Art of Landscape Gardening expressing the following sound views on the subject of the use of water in the landscape:
"The general cause of a natural lake or expanse of water is an obstruction to the current of the stream by some ledge or stratum of rock which it cannot penetrate, but as soon as the water has risen to the surface of the rock, it tumbles over with great fury, wearing itself a channel among the craggy fragments and generally forming an ample basin at the foot. Such is the scenery we must attempt at Thorsby."
