3275 



FOUNTAINS ABBEY 



Foundling Hospital, London. Children singing carols 

 in the chapel at Christmas 



Marguerite of Valois instituted a 

 foundling hospital which was incor- 

 porated with the great Foundling 

 Hospital in Paris, started in 1670. 

 Foundling hospitals now exist in 

 all the great capitals of the world, 

 though the word foundling does not 

 correctly describe them all. 



One of the most interesting of 

 these institutions is that in London. 

 Its founder, Thomas Coram (c. 

 1668-1751), a captain in the mer- 

 chant service, and a man of com- 

 paratively humble means, advo- 

 cated his project for nearly 20 years 

 before, in 1739, it was realized. 

 A house was taken in Hatton Gar- 

 den, and opened March 25, 1741, 

 for the admission of 20 infants. 

 The existing building in Guilford 

 Street, Bloomsbury, dates from 

 1754, when it had 600 inmates, 

 supported at an expenditure of 

 five times the income. Parliament 

 voted a grant of 10,000, but stipu- 

 lated for indiscriminate admission, 

 which had to be abandoned. Since 

 1760 admission has been limited to 

 illegitimate children who have been 

 deserted by the father, but whose 

 mothers can prove previous good 

 character.' In 1920 there were 

 about 700 inmates. Hogarth, one 

 of the earliest governors, began an 

 art exhibition in its rooms which 



tal has had a high 

 musical reputa- 

 tion. Its removal 

 to the country and 

 rebuilding was an- 

 nounced in Nov 

 1924. 



The boarding 

 out of infants in 

 suitable homes 

 before they become 

 regular inmates of 

 foundling hospitals 

 has proved bene- 

 ficial. The mortal- 

 ity in these insti- 

 tutions has, how- 

 ever, taxed the 

 best energies of 

 philanthropy and 

 medicine, but in 

 London and Paris 

 in recent years 

 much improve- 

 ment has been 

 effected. See Baby 

 Farming ; Child 

 Welfare; Infanti- 

 cide; Orphanage; 

 consult also His- 

 toire des Enfants 

 abandonnes, Sen- 

 nichon, 1880. 



Foundry (Lat. 

 fundere, to pour), 

 id- 



Word used for (1) the art of foun( 

 ing or casting in metals, and (2) an 

 establishment wherein metal is cast. 

 See Casting ; Iron ; Steel. 



Fount. In printing, a term for 

 a supply of type of one size and 

 face, with a distinctive nick. The 

 quantity is ordered according to 

 the number of compositors em- 

 ployed and the class of work for 

 which it is required. For news- 

 papers, an extra quantity of capi- 

 tals and figures is necessary. With 

 this proviso, a fount will contain 

 a standard number of all the 

 letters of the alphabet, graded in 

 bulk according to the occurrence of 

 the letters in the language in 

 which the type is cast. In the 

 U.S.A. the word is spelt font. See 

 Printing ; Typefounding. 



Fountain (late Lat. fontana). 

 Term applied to any construction 

 for the supply of water, from a sim- 

 ple spring to an elaborate artificial 

 basin with ornamental jets. The 

 need of fountains was experienced 

 in Oriental countries at a very early 

 date. Traces of their employment 

 have been found among the relics 

 of the Chaldaean civilization ; Pau- 

 sanias mentions Hellenistic exam- 

 ples ; and in ancient Rome they 

 were fully developed as a means of 

 distributing the water brought to 



led to the foundation of the annual .the city by the aqueducts. Pliny 



exhibitions of the Royal Academy, the Elder notes the construction or 



Handel was another tireless bene- repairing of more than 1,200 foun- 



factor, and since his day the hospi- tains in Rome alone. 



The treatment of fountains was 

 at first purely utilitarian. During 

 the Renaissance, however, the 

 ornate fountain was rapidly devel 

 oped. The fountains of Berne, each 

 dignified with a name of its own 

 The Bear, The Ogre, Justice and 

 the Fountain of the Innocents in 

 Paris (dated 1550) are imposing 

 architectural structures. The com 

 mon type of Renaissance fountain 

 was a shallow basin, with a pillar 

 of marble often surmounted by a 

 statue of stone or bronze in the 

 centre, from which projected jets 

 that supplied the running water. 

 The more primitive type was re 

 presented by the drinking fountains 

 at street corners. In France, the 

 zenith of fountain-construction was 

 reached under Louis XIV; one 

 may cite the elaborate fountains at 

 Versailles, with their thousands of 

 jets. When the practice of install- 

 ing a water supply in individual 

 houses was introduced towards the 

 end of the 18th century, utilitarian 

 fountains became rare. But bodies 

 like the Metropolitan Drinking 

 Fountain Association, formed in 

 London in 1859, proved that the de- 

 mand for this type still exists. Nota- 

 ble ornamental fountains of modern 

 times are the Fontana di Trevi at 

 Rome, and the fountains in the 

 Place delaConcorde, Paris. Seettlus. 

 Fountain Pen. Pen in which 

 ink from a reservoir in the holder 

 is fed automatically to the nib. 

 One or more feeders, fitted above 

 or below the nib, regulate the 

 supply of ink, which flows by capil- 

 larity. The nibs are made of gold 

 to prevent corrosion, and have iri- 

 dium-osmium points. 



Self -filling fountain pens are sup- 

 plied with ink other than by pour- 

 ing. One type has in the holder 

 a long flexible reservoir from which 

 the air is expelled, before filling, by 

 a plate, actuated by a small outside 

 lever pressing the reservoir tightly 

 against the inner wall of the holder. 

 When the air has been expelled, 

 the nib is immersed in ink ; the 

 lever is turned back into its original 

 position flush with the holder and 

 the ink rises into the reservoir. 

 Another type is fitted with a small 

 plunger, the pumping action of 

 which charges the reservoir. In a 

 third type, the filling is effected by 

 the pumping action of a rubber 

 dome fitted to a bottle containing 

 ink, the nib-end of the pen being 

 inserted in a neck on the dome. 



Fountains Abbey. Ruined 

 abbey in Yorkshire, England. It 

 stands near the little river Skell, 

 3 m. S.W. of Ripon ; it is in the 

 grounds of the mansion of Stud- 

 ley Royal, while near it is a man- 

 sion dating from Stuart times, 

 Fountains Hall. The ruins are 



