Lake

See also: Pond

History

The terms lake, pond, and, to a lesser extent, “pool,” were used to describe still-water features in garden settings in American landscape writing. Distinctions between them were not consistently made in dictionaries, treatises, or usage examples, and several of these sources used them synonymously. William Bartram, for instance, used the terms “lake” and “pond” interchangeably when describing Lake George, Ga., in 1791. Nehemiah Cleaveland, in his 1847 guide to Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, N.Y., was also undecided as to whether the bodies of water of “different size and shape” were either small lakes or ponds. A. J. Downing (1849) suggested that the terminology differed from British usage because of the abundance and scale of America’s natural waterways: “many a beautiful, limpid, natural expanse which in England would be thought a charming lake, is here simply a pond.” The first American edition of the Encyclopaedia (1798) stated flatly that “A pool and a pond are the same.” Noah Webster (1828) was clear in his distinction between a pond and a lake, with the latter being larger, and between a pond and a pool, but even Webster noted that the term “pool” was “used by writers with more latitude.” He also defined pool as “a small collection of water in a hollow place, supplied by a spring, and discharging its surplus water by an outlet. It is smaller than a lake, and in New England is never confounded with pond or lake. It signifies with us, a spring with a small bason or reservoir on the surface of the earth.”

The term “lake” generally connoted a larger-scale feature than that of a pool or pond, although, as noted above, the term “pond” was used interchangeably with that of “lake” in several descriptions. As indicated in the Horticultural Register (1836), the term “lake” signified a dignity that the smaller scale of a pond could not match. Lakes fulfilled a variety of functions in the garden, serving, for example, as a habitat for fish and water fowl, a source of ice and irrigation water, and, in garden design, a natural mirror and animating element. Their scale made them suitable for swimming and boating, as evidenced by the boating and bathing houses found along the shores of many.

Lakes in American garden settings were usually created by enlarging natural water features or by damming water courses. Existing lakes were incorporated into a landscape design by the addition of plantings, mounds, garden buildings, or bridges, such as those depicted at Monte Video and Blithewood [Fig. 5]. Lakes could also be created by enclosing part of a river, as described by A. J. Downing in his plan for a “Mansion residence, laid out in a natural style,” and seen in the plan for Point Breeze [Fig. 6]. Most of the American examples of lakes as garden elements date from the nineteenth century, and were found in the largest and most elaborate gardens of their time. As Downing pointed out in 1849, this exclusivity was due to the abundance of natural waterways in America, which made artificial lakes superfluous in many settings. In addition, the cost of undertaking such massive earthmoving made them impractical for most American garden owners.

Bodies of standing water, whether called lakes, ponds, or pools, provided many of the same visual effects, and writers praised the associations of coolness and the animating quality that water brought to a garden. As Downing noted, animation might come from the sparkle of the reflecting sun, the movement of wind on the water, or from the sound of a fountain or a stream feeding the pond. Water was prized, as Abercrombie (1817) noted, as a natural mirror reflecting the surrounding vegetation or, as at the carefully placed pond at Monticello and in a painting of an unknown site [Fig. 7], the house itself. Bodies of water not only sustained fish for sport and food, but, as Humphry Repton (1803) advised, they also attracted waterfowl and other animals and thus enhanced visual and aural interest of the garden. Downing (1847) praised the effect of contrasting water features, such as the rush of the waterfall at Blithewood, on the Hudson, juxtaposed with the still waters of the lake, “so full of the spirit of repose.”

-- Elizabeth Kryder-Reid

Texts

Usage

Bartram, William, 1791, describing Lake George, Ga., and settlements of the Muscogulge and Cherokee Indians (1928: 101–2, 407)

“At about fifty yards distance from the landing place, stands a magnificent Indian mount. . . . But what greatly contributed towards completing the magnificence of the scene, was a noble Indian highway, which led from the great mount, on a straight line, three quarters of a mile, first through a point or wing of the orange grove, and continuing thence through an awful forest of live oaks, it was terminated by palms and laurel magnolias, on the verge of an oblong artificial lake, which was on the edge of an extensive green level savanna. . . . The glittering water pond played on the sight, through the dark grove, like a brilliant diamond, on the bosom of the illumined savanna, bordered with various flowery shrubs and plants. . . .

“From the river St. Juans, Southerly, to the point of the peninsula of Florida, are to be seen high pyramidal mounts with spacious and extensive avenues, leading from them out of the town, to an artificial lake or pond of water; these were evidently designed in part for ornament or monuments of magnificence, to perpetuate the power and grandeur of the nation.”

Strickland, William, November 1794, describing Connecticut (p. 208)

“Throughout all Connecticut many ponds as called here, or as we should call them according to the scale of our own country, Lakes, are scattered in the low grounds or hollows among the Hills from which flow most of the lesser rivers, and streams, they are in length and breadth various from a mile to several; they add a beautiful feature, to a beautiful country, and considerable accomodation to those who reside near them or whose property they may be.”

Bryant, William Cullen, 25 August 1821, in a letter to his wife, Frances F. Bryant, describing the Vale, estate of Theodore Lyman, Waltham, Mass. (1975: 108)

“He took me to the seat of Mr. Lyman. . . . It is a perfect paradise. . . . In front of the house, to the south was an artificial piece of water winding about and widening into a lake, with a little island of pines in it, an elegant bridge crossing it, and swans swimming on the surface.” [Fig. 8]

Silliman, Benjamin, 1824, describing Monte Video, property of Daniel Wadsworth, Avon, Conn. (pp. 11–12, 26)

“The space or hollow caused by the absence of the ridge, or what may be very properly called the back bone of the mountain, is occupied by a deep lake, of the purest water, nearly half a mile in length, and somewhat less than half that width. . . . The ground is gently undulating, bounded on the west by the precipice which overlooks the Farmington valley, and inclining gently to the east, where it is terminated by the fine margin of trees, that skirt the lake....

“From this place [the summit] you have a view of the lake, of the boat at anchor on its surface, gay with its streamers and snowy awning: of the white building at the north extremity of the water, and, (rising immediately above it,) of forest trees and bold rocks, intermingled with each other, and surmounted by the Tower. . . .

“The beautiful crystal lake is on the top of the same lofty greenstone ridge, and within a few yards of the house; it pours its superfluous waters in a limpid stream, down the mountain’s side, and affords in winter the most pellucid ice that can be imagined.” [Fig. 9]

B., J., 1 October 1836, “Horticulture in Maine” (Horticultural Register 2: 385)

“In China, there is a beautiful pond seven or eight miles in length, which ought to be dignified with the title of lake. Its shores are mostly lined with well cultivated farms: it is enriched with islands and capes, and affords some fine scenery.”

Cleaveland, Nehemiah, 1847, describing Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass. (p. 14)

“Various small lakes, or ponds of different size and shape, embellish the grounds; and some of these have been so cleansed, deepened, and banked, as to present a pleasant feature in this wide-spread extent of forest loveliness—this ground of hallowed purpose.”

Downing, A. J., October 1847, describing Montgomery Place, country home of Mrs. Edward (Louise) Livingston, Dutchess County, N.Y. (Horticulturist 2: 157–59)

“THE LAKE.

“That shadowy path, that steals away so enticingly from the neighborhood of the cataract, leads to a spot of equal, though a different kind of loveliness. Leaving the border of the stream, and following it past one or two distracting points, where other paths, starting out at various angles, seem provokingly to tempt one away from the neighborhood of the water, we suddenly behold, with a feeling of delight, THE LAKE.

“Nothing can have a more charming effect than this natural mirror in the bosom of the valley. It is a fine expansion of the same stream, which farther down forms the large cataract. Here it sleeps, as lazily and glassily as if quite incapable of aught but reflecting the beauty of the blue sky, and the snowy clouds, that float over it. On two sides, it is overhung and deeply shaded by the bowery thickets of the surrounding wilderness; on the third is a peninsula, fringed with the graceful willow, and rendered more attractive by a rustic temple; while the fourth side is more sunny and open, and permits a peep at the distant azure mountain tops. . . . [Fig. 10]

“The stream here emerges from a dark thicket, falls about twenty feet, and then rushes away on the side of the peninsula opposite the lake. Although only separated by a short walk and the mass of cedars on the promontory, from the lake

itself, yet one cannot be seen from the other; and the lake, so full of the spirit of repose, is a perfect opposite to this foaming, noisy little waterfall.”