ABSTRACT
There are two main types of lake: geometric and irregular, with various sub-divisions, and a minimum size of 1 h. In the first two decades of the eighteenth century, there was a change in attitudes to ornamental water and the concept evolved that a large body of water was desirable, primarily for its visual qualities and leisure possibilities. This was a step change in landscape development. The fishponds which had existed in deer parks for centuries were not generally within the immediate vicinity or in view of the house or castle. A parallel thread in the development of ornamental water was a feature which could be described as a serpentine canal. The word ‘serpentine’ has been used in the twentieth century to denote a narrow, winding irregular lake, or one with a ‘hooked tail’ like the one produced at Holkham by William Emes in c. 1784, but this was not what contemporaries meant by the term.
