is inconvenient
to put on a drag at the top of the bridge, and that any restiveness
of the horse is more dangerous on the bridge than on the embankment.
To this I answer: first, it is not more dangerous in reality, though
it looks so, for the bridge is always guarded by an effective
parapet, but the embankment is sure to have no parapet, or only a
useless rail; and secondly, that it is better to have the slope on
the bridge and make the roadway wide in proportion, so as to be
quite safe, because a little waste of space on the river is no loss,
but your wide embankment at the side loses good ground; and so my
picturesque bridges are right as well as beautiful, and I hope to
see them built again some day instead of the frightful
straight-backed things which we fancy are fine, and accept from the
pontifical rigidities of the engineering mind.

[58] I cannot waste space here by reprinting what I have said in
other books; but the reader ought, if possible, to refer to the
notices of this part of our subject in Modern Painters, vol. iv.
chap xvii.; and Stones of Venice, vol. iii. chap. i. Sec. 8.

[59] If you happen to be reading at this part of the book, without
having gone through any previous practice, turn back to the sketch
of the ramification of stone pine, Fig. 4, p. 17, and examine the
curves of its boughs one by one, trying them by the conditions here
stated under the heads A and B.

[60] The reader, I hope, observes always that every line in these
figures is itself one of varying curvature, and cannot be drawn by
compasses.

[61] I hope the reader understands that these wood-cuts are merely
facsimiles of the sketches I make at the side of my paper to
illustrate my meaning as I write--often sadly scrawled if I want to
get on to something else. This one is really a little too careless;
but it would take more time and trouble to make a proper drawing of
so odd a boat than the matter is worth. It will answer the purpose
well enough as it is.

[62] Imperfect vegetable form I consider that which is in its nature
dependent, as in runners and climbers; or which is susceptible of
continual injury without materially losing the power of giving
pleasure by its aspect, as in the case of the smaller grasses. I
have not, of course, space here to explain these minor distinctions,
but th