The fish, too, make a more considerable feature of the
brookside, and the trout plumping in the shadow takes the ear. A
stream should, besides, be narrow enough to cross, or the burn hard
by a bridge, or we are at once shut out of Eden. The quantity of
water need be of no concern, for the mind sets the scale, and can
enjoy a Niagara Fall of thirty inches. Let us approve the singer of
'Shallow rivers, by whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.'
If the sea is to be our ornamental water, choose an open seaboard
with a heavy beat of surf; one much broken in outline, with small
havens and dwarf headlands; if possible a few islets; and as a first
necessity, rocks reaching out into deep water. Such a rock on a calm
day is a better station than the top of Teneriffe or Chimborazo. In
short, both for the desert and the water, the conjunction of many
near and bold details is bold scenery for the imagination and keeps
the mind alive.
Given these two prime luxuries, the nature of the country where we
are to live is, I had almost said, indifferent; after that inside the
garden, we can construct a country of our own.
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