“Elsewhere the designer may prefer to play with the colour of water, seeking to reproduce those lovely hues of blue and green which the Italians of an earlier age caught and fixed in garden reservoirs, and even in small fountain basins. Water absorbs the red rays of the spectrum and is therefore a blue transparent medium, its colour when distilled being a tint of Prussian blue, as may be seen in the pure ice of the glacier crevasses. All that is necessary to bring out the natural beauty of the element by transmitted light is, firstly, a flood of strong sunshine; secondly, to look down from above as nearly vertically as possible ; thirdly, to cut off reflections of the sky by trees or hedges or other dark objects. Suspended particles of glacier dust or chalk or lime add much to the brilliance of the effect, and in a country where the stone is red or yellow should give a tint of green or purple or violet. In England one may sometimes see blue or green pools at the bottom of a deserted stone-quarry : if experiment should show that good colour is unattainable at a higher level under these[…]”
Excerpt From: Sitwell, George Reresby, Sir, 1860-1943. “An essay on the making of gardens; being a study of old Italian gardens, of the nature of beauty, and the principles involved in garden design.” London, J. Murray, 1909. iBooks.
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