Cascade/Cataract/Waterfall

History

Cascade, cataract, and waterfall were terms used interchangeably to designate a water feature, either natural or artificial, that was part of a designed landscape. These terms, which were synonymous, were in common usage and garden literature by the beginning of the eighteenth century. Only Noah Webster’s dictionary (1828) made any distinction among them, stating that the cataract was a cascade on a large scale. The more frequent synonymous usage of the terms is found in A. J. Downing’s essay on Montgomery Place (1847), where he entitled a section, “The cataract,” but then used the term “waterfall” in the text that followed.

This garden feature was achieved either by incorporating a preexisting waterfall into the garden scheme, by enhancing a small falls with the addition of rocks, or by building a completely artificial cascade. Directions for constructing cascades suggest that they were features that could be built on a range of scales, suitable for small gardens, large estates, and public waterways such as Fairmount Waterworks in Philadelphia. J. C. Loudon (1826), in his usual practical way, wrote that the only requirement was a wall to interrupt the flow of a stream or rivulet, causing the water to fall noisily over rocks and uneven surfaces.

The literature often describes waterfalls as part of the view beyond the garden proper. Visitors to Gray’s Garden in Philadelphia in the late eighteenth century, for example, recalled moving from the garden into the wilderness, where the falls of the Schuylkill were enjoyed before winding back to the garden [Fig. 1]. Downing offered descriptions of several cataracts that were illustrated by Alexander Jackson Davis, including those found at Montgomery Place [Fig. 2] and Blithewood [Fig. 3]. Located in the Hudson River Valley, these cataracts were connected to the designed landscape by the addition of paths, summerhouses, rustic furniture, and bridges. Although it often preexisted the garden, the cascade played a role in the experience of surprise and variety belonging to both the designed and naturally picturesque landscape [Fig. 4]. The feature also could serve as a compositional terminus, as noted by the writer Constantia (1790).

Visitors often described the cascade as one of the most important elements in the sensory experience of the garden since it combined sound, which broke the silence, with the movement and vitality caused by the action of the falling water and its cooling spray. Downing, for example, noted that “[t]his valley is musical with the sound of waterfalls.” The sounds of crashing and gurgling water frequently preceded the view of the cascade, adding suspense to the catalogue of sensations felt by the visitor as he or she walked through the garden.

The question of taste was an issue as well; George William Johnson (1847) noted that a cascade was agreeable “only when properly associated with the scenery around.” The cascade or waterfall in the garden was an important element of the landscape because of the numerous associations it evoked. The cascade at Tivoli, the fountains of Versailles, Virginia Waters at Windsor, were all icons of European garden design that many designers sought to emulate. Others knew cascades such as Great Falls, Va., and Niagara Falls, N.Y., as America’s natural wonders, and writers such as Thomas Jefferson used these sites as proof of the bounty and sublimity of the new nation.

-- Therese O’Malley

Texts

Usage

• Anonymous, 1752, South Carolina Gazette (quoted in Lounsbury 1994: 62)

“To Gentlemen . . . as have a taste in pleasure . . . gardens . . . may depend on having them laid out, leveled, and drained in the most compleat manner, and politest taste, by the subscriber; who perfectly understands . . . erecting water works . . . fountains, cascades, grottos.”

• Jefferson, Thomas, 1771, describing Monticello, plantation of Thomas Jefferson, Charlottesville, Va. (1944: 26)

“afew feet below the spring level the ground 40 or 50 f. sq. let the water fall from the spring in the upper level over a terrace in the form of a cascade. then conduct it along the foot of the terrace to the Western side of the level, where it may fall into a cistern under a temple, from which it may go off by the western border till it falls over another terrace at the Northern or lower side. let the temple be raised 2. f. for the first floor of stone. under this is the cistern, which may be a bath or anything else. the 1st story arches on three sides; the back or western side being close because the hill there comes down, and also to carry up stairs on the outside. the 2d story to have a door on one side, a spacious window in each of the other sides, the rooms each 8. f. cube; with a small table and a couple of chairs. the roof may be Chinese, Grecian, or in the taste of the Lantern of Demosthenes at Athens.”

• Jefferson, Thomas, April 1786, describing Hagley, property of Lord Wescot, England (1944: 113)

“Hagley, now Lord Wescot’s.—One thousand acres: no distinction between park and garden— both blended, but more of the character of garden. . . . This garden occupying a descending hollow between the Clent and Witchbury hills, with the spurs from those hills, there is no level in it for a spacious water. There are, therefore, only some small ponds. From one of these there is a fine cascade; but it can only be occasionally, by opening the sluice. This is in a small, dark, deep hollow, with recesses of stone in the banks on every side. In one of these is a Venus predique, turned half round as if inviting you with her into the recess. There is another cascade seen from the portico on the bridge.”

• Cutler, Rev. Manasseh, 14 July 1787, describing Gray’s Tavern, Philadelphia, Pa. (1987: 1:276–77)

“When we came to the fence, we were delightfully astonished with the view of one of the finest cascades in America, which presented itself directly before us at the further end of the opening. A broad sheet of water comes over a large horizontal rock, and falls about seventy feet perpendicular. It is in a large river, which empties into the Schuylkill just above us. The distance we judged to be about a quarter of a mile, which being seen through the narrow opening in the tall grove, and the fine mist that rose incessantly from the rocks below, had a most delightful effect. Here we gazed with admiration and pleasure for some time, and then took a different route in our return through the grove, and followed a walk that led down toward the Schuylkill.”

• Constantia [pseud.], 24 June 1790, “Description of Gray’s Gardens, Pennsylvania” (Massachusetts Magazine 3: 415)

“Suddenly, however, an open plain is outspread before us, and we are presented with a pleasing horizon—but as suddenly, thick trees again intervene, until at the extremity of the walks, a mill and a beautiful natural cascade terminates the prospect.”

• L’Enfant, Pierre-Charles, 22 June 1791, in a report to George Washington, describing his plans for Washington, D.C. (quoted in Caemmerer 1950: 153)

“I propose in this map, of leting the [Ti]ber return in its proper channel by a fall which issuing from under the base of the Congress building may there form a cascade of forty feet heigh or more than one hundred waide which would produce the most happy effect in rolling down to fill up the canall and discharge itself in the Potowmack of which it would then appear as the main spring when seen through that grand and majestic avenue intersecting with the prospect from the palace at a point which being seen from both I have designated as the proper for to erect a grand Equestrian figure.”

• Jefferson, Thomas, 1804, describing Monticello, plantation of Thomas Jefferson, Charlottesville, Va. (quoted in Nichols and Griswold 1978: 111)

“The spring of Montalto [Carter’s Mountain] either to be brought to Monticello by pipes or to fall over steps of stairs in cascade, made visible at Monticello through a vista.”

• Trollope, Frances Milton, 1830, describing Fairmount Waterworks, Philadelphia, Pa. (1832: 2:42–43)

“The water-works of Philadelphia have not yet perhaps as wide extended fame as those of Marley [at Versailles], but they are not less deserving it. . . . It is, in truth, one of the very prettiest spots the eye can look upon. A broad wear is thrown across the Schuylkill, which produces the sound and look of a cascade.” [Fig. 5]

• Thacher, James, 26 November 1830, “An Excursion on the Hudson,” describing the garden of Col. Thaddeus Kosciusko, West Point, N.Y. (New England Farmer 9: 148)

“Among the interesting recollections pertaining to West Point is Kosciusko’s garden, situated in a deep rocky valley near the river, where in 1778, I was amused in viewing his curious water fountain, spouting jets and cascades. ‘Clusters of lilacs are still growing which are said to have been planted by the Polish Patriot.’”