Make the lake by damming a stream in its valley, give it a winding, irregular outline with promontories, and hide both its ends behind trees, a bend or a bridge, so that it seems a river flowing through the park.
Whately observes that the beauty of a river lies in its course and that of a lake in its expanse, and that the eye should not be allowed to see where a river begins or ends. Brown applied this everywhere: a dam, usually disguised by a cascade or planted over, held back a stream in the hollow below the house; the edges were shaped into bays and points, and the ends were lost round a curve or under a bridge. At Blenheim he dammed the little river Glyme so that the water rose round the piers of Vanbrugh’s bridge, which had spanned a marsh, and the bridge at last had something to cross.
The lake was placed where it would be seen from the principal rooms, below the level of the eye, and close enough to catch the light.
In place of a wall, bound the garden with a ditch whose side towards the garden is a vertical retaining wall and whose other side slopes up to the field, so that cattle are kept out and the view from the house runs on uninterrupted into the park.
ditch c. 1.5–2 m deep: wall on the garden side, turf slope on the park side
Let the character of the site direct the design: whether the ground should be raised or lowered, a view opened or closed, water led or stilled. Prefer variety, surprise and concealed bounds to symmetry.
Compose the garden as a painter composes a landscape: in groups of trees for light and shade, with water winding through the hollows and a temple or bridge placed where it will be seen across it, so that each turn of the walk opens a new picture.
Bring grass up to the walls of the house and keep the cattle off it with a ha-ha; plant trees in clumps on the rising ground and as single specimens on the lawn; and enclose the park with a belt of woodland, with a drive inside it from which the park is seen.
Show the natural beauties of a place and hide its defects; give it an appearance of extent and freedom by disguising the boundary; conceal every interference of art, so that the whole seems natural; and remove or hide whatever serves only convenience and cannot be made ornamental.
Let the approach be the natural road to the house, without needless turns; let it show the house first at an angle, so that two sides are seen, and not head-on down an avenue; and make it plain that the road leads to this house and nowhere else.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “A lake that seems a river”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/brown-lake. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.