Ornamental Lakes

Their Origins and Evolution in English Landscapes

Wendy Bishop

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000391626
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architettura
• Subtopic: Design e architettura

Ornamental Lakes traces the history of lakes in England, from their appearance in the early eighteenth century, through their development in the 1750s, and finally to their decline in the nineteenth century. Aside from the natural lakes in the Lake District, the bodies of water we see in England today are man-made, primarily intended to ornament the landscapes of the upper classes.

Through detailed research, author Wendy Bishop argues that, contrary to accepted thinking, the development of lakes led to the dissolution of formal landscapes rather than following changes in landscape design. Providing a comprehensive overview of lakes in England, including data on who made these lakes, how, and when, it additionally covers fishponds, water gardens, cascades and reservoirs.

Richly illustrated and accompanied by case studies across the region, this book offers new insights in landscape history for students, researchers and those interested in how landscapes evolve.

1
INTRODUCTION

Setting the scene

‘What is a lake?’ It sounds like a very simple question, with a straightforward answer, but a moment’s reflection throws up more questions. ‘What is the difference between a lake and a pond?’ ‘How big are they?’ Another less obvious question is ‘When did lakes begin?’ Underlying these questions is the distinction between man-made lakes and naturally occurring lakes. England has a large number of lakes, and many people assume they have always been there, if they consider the matter at all. In fact, England’s only natural lakes are in the Lake District. All the other bodies of water are man-made – for industrial or ornamental purposes.

Our concern is with ornamental lakes, which are familiar in well-known landscapes like Blenheim, Oxfordshire, Stourhead, Wiltshire or Studley Royal in Yorkshire. It is less well-known that there were no ornamental lakes in England in 1700, but by 1750 there were many. Furthermore, the concept of an ornamental lake simply did not exist in 1700. To contemporaries, ‘lake’ meant a large, naturally occurring piece of water, and only took on its current meaning in the late eighteenth century. So what happened? This book answers that question, and tells the story of ornamental lakes.

Despite a large body of information about eighteenth-century landscapes, very little is known about their ornamental lakes. They were one of the main features of landscapes for most of the century yet information about when they were made, and by whom, can be very scarce. Often, it is not known when a lake¹ was made, and frequently the designer is also a mystery. This is reflected in the Historic England listings, where a lake may be mentioned, but often no other information is given – because it is not known. Although there were bodies of ornamental water in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, such as ponds and canals, these were geometric in style, as were the landscapes of those times. The informal lakes of the eighteenth century did not fit easily into the geometric landscapes of the 1700s and by the mid-eighteenth century, the prevailing landscape style had also become informal. What role did lakes have in that change, and when precisely did these lakes first appear? What were the factors which led to ornamental water becoming irregular? In order that the answers can be based on solid evidence, a statistical approach has been adopted.² There can also be a tendency to divide landscape evolution into distinct styles or phases, and lakes do not fit neatly into those categories. Instead, focussing on the lakes themselves can produce new concepts about them, and the landscapes they inhabited, as well as new information about how and where they were made.

Etymology

The words used by contemporaries in the eighteenth century to talk about water can be confusing. ‘Pond’ was used to mean a piece of water of any kind, big or small, in the park or in the gardens. This was the case well into the eighteenth century, and people also used the terms ‘pool’, ‘mere’ or ‘water’ when referring to water in ornamental landscapes. Some ‘ponds’ for example, were sizable geometric shaped pieces of water.

The etymology of the word ‘lake’ is very revealing about attitudes to water and, until around the 1740s or ’50s, it meant a natural body of water. Generally, in estates, the only man-made pieces of water of any size were fishponds for breeding fish (vivaria), and these were in the park. The concept of a man-made ‘lake’ simply did not exist before c. 1720, and the etymology confirms this. When lakes did begin to be made, various terms were used such as ‘The Great Water’, ‘the Piece of Water’ (1724, Vanbrugh about Castle Howard),³ ‘The Bason’ (1738, on Roque’s plan of Claremont), ‘The Intended Water’ (1756, Brown’s lake at Wimpole),⁴ ‘The Broad Water’. Vanbrugh was the first person known to use the term ‘lake’ as we use the word today, in 1709, in a letter about the water at Blenheim: “The Water (where it will appear to best Advantage, whether Lake or River) is full in View”.⁵ An exception is a comment by Sir Godfrey Copley, in a letter of 1703:

I am glad the Canalls & Ponds go on so Well, but I am told great Lakes are now the mode. Vanbrook set out one for the D: of Newcastle to front his new house of 40 acres.⁶

However, as Vanbrugh was the person planning this lake, it suggests the word originated with him. It appears that he was instrumental in promulgating the concept of a lake, as we shall see. Plans of Blenheim drawn by him in c. 1705 show that he was trying to persuade Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, to let him make a lake of 3–4 h in the valley to the west of the house (Figures 3.14 and 3.15). She subsequently used the word in letters to various people in 1723–5 when she was planning a piece of water to the east of Vanbrugh’s bridge:

tho Sir John formerly sett his heart upon turning that [the west side] into a lake, as I will do it on the other side; & I will have swans & all sorts of things in it.⁷

The irony is that the Duchess, who hated Vanbrugh, popularised a term he introduced. It was then used by Stukeley, who sketched Blenheim, and by Switzer, who worked there, in his 1727 Universal System of Water and Water-works, and it became attached to large bodies of ornamental water. However, even as late as the 1770s, ‘lake’ was not a term routinely used, though both Thomas Whateley and Arthur Young occasionally employed it. Repton commonly used it in the 1790s, in his Red Books, and by c. 1800 large areas of ornamental water were generally referred to as lakes.

Definitions

As the discussion of etymology shows, it is important to have clear definitions of what is meant by a lake, and these are set out in what follows.

Partly because of the difficulty in distinguishing between a lake and a pond, an ornamental lake is defined as a body of water of 1 hectare or more; it is also intended to be primarily ornamental and to provide aesthetic pleasure, although it could be used to stock fish, as well as being used recreationally. It may be argued that this is an arbitrary size to choose. It has the advantage, however, that a piece of water of this size cannot be mistaken for a pond, using today’s concept of that word. Another factor is that it is also large enough to appear on most maps.⁸ A hectare (2.4 acres) is about the same size as Trafalgar Square in London. The 1 hectare definition does not include islands, so an island counts as part of the area of the lake. This is partly a practical decision, to avoid detailed and lengthy calculations, but it is also because often lakes started life without islands, then acquired them, and then had them altered or removed, so a comparison of the size of a lake as it evolved would be very complex, and the amount of space the lake occupied in the landscape did not necessarily change. Perhaps the most important reason, however, for adopting the 1 hectare criterion is that it means that lakes can be rationally compared with each other, in terms of numbers and also size.

Ornamental lakes are characterised by having a visual relationship with the house, and by having ornamental walks or drives relating them to the house, especially if they lie at some distance from it. In order to provide a framework for discussing the changes in the chronology and form of lakes, a number of sub-categories are used.

A geometric lake is one where all the sides are straight, or an arc or a circle, and the shape is symmetrical in plan view (Figure 1.1). Planting around it is formal in style, and the lake fits into the overall geometry of the landscape design.

FIGURE 1.1 A detail of Charles Bridgeman’s plan of Stowe, 1739, engraved by Jacques Rigaud, showing the Octagonal Lake, which was c. 1 h and made in the 1720s. The lakes to the left and right of the octagon, as depicted here, are semi-geometric lakes. Stowe School/SHTP.

A semi-geometric lake is a sub-set of this, with straight sides, or geometric arcs, but the shape is asymmetrical in plan view (Figure 1.2). It does broadly fit into the geometry of the overall design.

FIGURE 1.2 A diagram of a 1732 map of Wolterton, Norfolk, by J. Corbridge. A c. 4 h lake was made by 1732. Courtesy of Tom Williamson.

A hybrid lake has two or more straight sides, but one or more sides are wavy, and the plan view reflects this asymmetry (Figure 1.3). The associated planting varies in formality, and the lake may partly fit into th...