300 PBACTIGAL GAEDENING. 



possess the head of water by means of springs on high ground, 

 the construction of the fountain is simply by means of a pipe 

 to convey the water to the lower ground, where the jet of the 

 fountain is placed ; and here it may be necessary to hint, that 

 the lower the design is formed — that is, the nearer it is to the 

 water — the higher it will play. But if we have to fomi the 

 head for the purpose of the fountain, the nearer it is to thq 

 work it has to do, the better it will be done. Generally, it 

 is by means of a large tank ; and the water is pumped up 

 by horse, or manual, or steam-power, from this tank, which 

 should be concealed, or be placed on the top of some of the 

 offices, so as to be a part as it were of the building; the 

 same head of water may be made to supply the mansion. 

 Where the water is supplied by power, the fountains need not 

 always be j^laying ; but with a natural head of water it is of 

 Httle or no consequence. Fountains are as various in their 

 designs, as any other object in a garden. They may be made 

 to play in a circular basin where gold and silver fish are 

 sporting, as at Hampton Court ; or they may be made to spirt 

 or run from grotesque figures, as they once did at Moor Park, 

 where one figure was a washerwoman wringing out clothes 

 which the water was running from, and a drunken man was 

 in the agonies of extreme sickness, with the water gurgling 

 from his mouth ! Strange as this fancy may appear, we saw 

 the leaden figures at Rickmansworth, not ten years since, 

 and they were specimens of extraordinary talent in modelhng. 

 We mention these to show there is no limit to the fancy, even 

 to the indulgence of the most costly and artistical excellence, 

 to carry out a vulgar taste for which even the extraordinary 

 merit of the artist hardly compensates. We do not mention 

 this for imitation, but to show that almost anything may be 

 adopted for a fountain, so it does not outrage nature and taste. 

 Lions' heads vomiting water are common ; but the most un- 

 meaning and senseless subjects are as common as anything ; 

 thus, a figure spouting up the water from a horn — one would 

 think the imagination poor indeed that could not find a better 

 subject. A dolphin, or any other water monster, spouting up 

 water after the fashion of a whale, and whose figure would be 

 haK out and half in the water, would seem more natural, and 

 it would have the advantage of being closer to the power. 

 For be it remembered, that if water will rise ten feet, every 

 foot that is taken away by the pedestal and figure has to be 



