Canal (garden history)

In the history of gardening and landscaping, a canal is a relatively large piece of water that has a very regular shape, usually long, thin and rectangular.^[2] The peak period for garden canals was the 17th and 18th centuries, by the end of which less formal water features were in favour, in the style of the English landscape garden. It is distinguished from a garden pond or lake by its shape, and typically falls somewhere between the two in area. It might be wholly artificial, created by diverting and damming a stream, or based around a natural water feature which is landscaped. Usually it appears to be enclosed, though in fact water passes in and out by channels below the surface. The edges are often walled, and the water relatively shallow.^[3]

Traditionally, in England the canal has been associated with the Dutch garden style of the later 17th century, especially from about 1690 to 1720, though this has been challenged in recent years. There was also a tradition of canals in the French formal garden style, culminating in the huge four-armed Grand Canal that dominates the bottom of the Gardens of Versailles, made in 1662–68, the main branch 1585 metres long and 122 wide.^[4]

A detailed study of canals in Suffolk found evidence of 56 in the county, some previously thought to be fragments of a moat or "mere ponds"; "Amazingly, in view of the received wisdom about the scarcity of surviving canals nationally, a high proportion of these are still recognisable and water-filled".^[5] Analysis of the proportions of these showed that nearly half were between 5 and 10 times as long as they were wide, with the next largest groups (10 or 11 each) those with ratios of 1 to 5, and then 10 to 15.^[6] Most were between 50 and 100 metres long, but two were 460 and 300 metres. A few use a tapering shape to give (from one end) an impression of being longer than they actually are. Some had or have islands, others cascades into them.^[7]

Apart from being a highly prestigious, because expensive, ornament to a garden, and a pleasant place to walk, canals had some practical uses. A large stock of water near the house may have been useful for watering the garden and other household purposes; some houses had special "dipping pools" for the gardeners and servants to take water from. Many canals were stocked with fish, and they attracted edible waterfowl, who could nest safely if there was an island. Boats of an appropriate size could be taken out, and the Earl of Bristol nearly drowned at Ickworth House in 1717, when he was in "imminent danger from being some time under water in my new-made canal here, with the boate (out of which I fell topsy-turvy) driven by the wind over my head". He may have been fishing with a rod, by now a popular leisure activity.^[8] Louis XIV famously staged mock naval battles on the Grand Canal at Versailles. Canals were made during the Little Ice Age, and allowed ice skating during the winter, as well as swimming in summer.