LATHOM. It is hardly to be conceived how much this view to the north, No. XV. [our figs. 33 and 34], will be improved by the removal of the large square pond. Water reflecting only the sky (which is the case with this and every other pond raised above the level of the natural ground), acts like a mass of light placed betwixt the eye and the more distant objects. Every one knows the effect that a lantern or a torch has, to prevent our seeing what is beyond it; and this same cause operates in all cases in proportion to the quantity of rays reflected, whether from water, from snow, from white paling, or any other luminous object. This accounts for the pleasure we derive from seeing water at a proper distance, and of a natural shape. Water is said to attract our notice with irresistible power; but the pond at Lathom, placed in the foreground, engrosses too much of the landscape, and is neither sufficiently pleasing in its shape, nor natural in its situation, to deserve the place it holds, as the leading feature of the scene.
