286 FOUNTAINS. [CHAP. X. 



Fountains. — Though fountains are more suit- 

 able to a hot country than to a weeping climate 

 like that of England, yet it must be confessed 

 they are generally a great improvement to garden 

 scenery. The first thing to be considered before 

 erecting one is, where to make the reservoir ; as 

 on the elevation at which that is above the garden 

 depends the height to which the water of the 

 fountain will ascend. The length of time which 

 the fountain will play depends on the quantity 

 of water contained in the reservoir; but this has 

 nothing to clo with the height to which the water 

 will rise. If a cistern be formed on the top of 

 a summer-house ten feet and a half high, and a 

 pipe from that be carried down to a sufficient 

 depth in the ground to secure it from frost, and 

 thence horizontally to the orifice which is to 

 form the fountain, that orifice, if it be only half 

 an inch in diameter, will throw up a jet of water 

 ten feet high, and will continue playing till all 

 the water in the cistern is exhausted. The 

 conducting pipe for such a fountain should be 

 two inches and a quarter in diameter, and it 

 should be furnished with a valve or stop-cock, 

 which may be turned at pleasure, and by which 

 the water may be either suffered to ascend 

 through the orifice, or retained in the con- 

 ducting pipe. The reservoir cistern must be 

 kept full by a forcing pump, or hydraulic ram ; 

 or, in the neighbourhood of London, by high 

 service from the water company which supplies 

 the dwelling. Any cistern sufficiently high 

 above the garden will do. Where a cistern in 

 the roof is well supplied with a high-service 

 pipe, a fountain with a jet thirty or forty feet 

 high, according to the height of the house, 



