Gilpin, William S.: Practical hints upon landscape gardening: with some remarks on domestic architecture, as connected with scenery (London: Cadell [u.a.], 1835)

ON WATER.

175

“ when varied in their shape and accom-
44 paniments, have the same effect as forest
44 thickets, circular islands that of chimps ;
44 and the same system which gives rise to
44 round distinct clumps, of course, produces
44 islands equally round and unconnected. As
44 the prevailing idea has been to show a
44 great uninterrupted extent, whether of grass
44 or of water, islands on that account have
44 been but little in fashion : I have, indeed,
44 seldom seen more than one in any piece of
44 artificial water, and that apparently made
44 rather for the sake of water-fowl than of
44 ornament. When one of these circular
44 islands is too near the shore, the canal
44 which separates them is mean, and the
44 island from most points appears like a pro-
44 jection from the shore itself; and when, on
44 the other hand, it is nearly in the centre
44 (a position of which I have seen some very
44 ridiculous instances), it has much the same
44 unnatural, unmeaning look, as the eye
44 which painters have placed in the middle
44 of the Cyclops’ forehead ; and that is one
44 of the few points on which the judgment
44 of painters seems to me to be nearly on a
44 level with that of gardeners : they have