The rippling motion of water is a circumstance to which improvers have seldom paid sufficient attention. They generally aim at a broad expanse and depth, not considering that a narrow shallow brook in motion, over a gravelly bottom, is not less an object of beauty and worthy of imitation; the deep dell, betwixt the boat-house and the bridge, might be rendered very interesting, by bringing a lively brook along the valley; the embouchure of this brook should be laid with gravel, to induce cattle to form themselves in groups at the edge of the water, which is one of the most pleasing circumstances of natural landscape. It sometimes happens, near large rivers, that a clear spring bubbles from a fountain, and pours its waters rapidly into the neighbouring stream; this is always considered a delightful object in nature, yet I do not recollect it has ever been imitated by art; it would be very easy to produce it in this instance, by leading water in a channel from the upper pool, and after passing underground, by tubes, for a few yards, let it suddenly burst through a bed of sand and stones, and being thus filtered by ascent, it would ripple along the valley till it joined the great water. Milton was aware of this contrast between the river and the rill, where he mentions, amongst the scenery of his Allegro, "Shallow brooks and rivers wide."
