Smooth and insipid lake margins

It is of but little consequence how roughly and irregularly the projections, elevations, etc., of the banks and outlines are at first made, so that some general form and connexion is preserved. The danger lies on the other side, viz. in producing a whole too tame and insipid; for we have found by experience, how difficult it is to make the best workmen understand how to operate in any other way than in regular curves and straight lines. Besides, newly moved earth, by settling and the influence of rains, etc., tends, for some time, towards greater evenness and equality of surface.