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The Country House 



after simple Classic lines, such a seat could be made for $12 or so. It is well, 

 however, that it have a stone base and be fully protected with spar varnish. 

 Garden seats may be in a variety of forms, as suggested by conditions. They 

 may be simply isolated seats, or partially enclosed and covered by a semi-pergola 

 motive. They may be built about a central umbrella motive or let into niches in 

 the wall. In any case it is advisable that slab seats should crown or pitch to shed 

 the water, thus accelerating their drying, or where practical the seat may be made 

 of closely placed wooden slats to effect the same end. 



If there be a judgment day, we pray that all sculptors who have perpetrated 

 hideous and unhealthy fountains shall receive just punishment. It is not a 

 pleasant sensation to look for a moment upon a person writhing in the agonies of 

 a violent poison, but to have the horror perpetrated in marble or bronze and 

 erected as a detail of a fountain is unbearable. To emphasise the play of muscles, 

 no doubt, the anatomy is contorted with lifelike realism and, to crown all, the 

 nightmare is actually ejecting the cause of his troubles pure water. This phase 

 of sculpture may be strenuous and good art, but of the two evils we much prefer 

 the type of chaste maiden who reverses her funeral urn to drain the stagnant water 

 therein collected. 



Sculpture is allowed a certain decorative license as regards grotesque and 

 allegorical interpretations, and these things are well, provided they be not carried 

 to the point of being repulsive. The sculptured goose, swan or fish may serve to 

 throw a limited jet of water to a limited distance, while the human and animal 



masks may be used 

 in like manner, but 

 each should look 

 capable of the task 

 imposed upon it. As 

 an example of the 

 unnatural delivery 

 of water, take the 

 two flanking figures 

 in an Italian garden 

 one of the foun- 

 tains of the royal 

 palace, Caserta. In 

 this an urn, inclined 

 slightly upward, 

 delivers a small and 

 powerful stream 

 which carries well 

 over the cascades 

 and into the basin. 



The Italian well curb, or "pozo," in the centre of the court of Mrs. Hearst's hacienda I hlS IS not the nat- 

 ural delivery of an 



urn, and is consequently false and ludicrous. It is far better that a simple orna- 

 mental water head be used than that such startling illusions as this be tolerated. 



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