Bridges and Temples in a Garden

Where the banks of a stream intersecting the garden of a domain in an elevated class of decoration are precipitous, a bridge, as here represented, would form an agreeable feature of the scene, and accordingly as the stream favourably deviated from a straight line, the view from the temple would be varied and interesting.

This design ought to be made in stone, and upon a small scale; for such an edifice, when applied as ornamental chiefly, ought to be considered rather as a bijou than otherwise, and elegance of character be made to supersede the striking and bold effects necessary to buildings connected with the chief approach to the mansion. When stone quarries are on the estate itself, and the charge of distant carriage therefore not incurred, these buildings may be erected at a moderate expense, and many architectural beauties introduced that are not within the reach of people otherwise situated, without a vast expenditure. The expense attendant on land carriage, has done more to prevent the use of stone, and consequently the adoption of similar designs, than the consideration of the labour necessary to erect them, united with the additional charge of the material itself: from this cause they have sometimes been built of wood or plaister; and the speedy decay of these have necessarily prevented the frequent use of such buildings in landscape or ornamental gardening.