276 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 



the quadrangle, all paved with Purbeck, very pleasant 

 and delightful," In an eighteenth-century picture, with 

 groups of strollers and a lady passing the gay company 

 in her sedan chair, the palings are superseded by fine 

 iron railings enclosing the lofty jet, its marble basin, and 

 shady trees. The pavement ended with the terrace wall 

 overlooking the garden below, and the Thames covered 

 at high tide what is now the lower part of the lawn. 

 The Fountain Court has inspired many a thought which 

 has found expression in prose and verse, but no picture 

 is more vivid or well known than the figure of Ruth 

 Pinch, in " Martin Chuzzlewit," waiting for her brother 

 " with the best little laugh upon her face that ever 

 played in opposition to the fountain," or the description 

 at the end, of that crowning day to her happiness, when 

 she walks there with John Westlock, and " Brilliantly 

 the Temple Fountain splashed in the sun, and laughingly 

 its liquid music played, and merrily the idle drops of 

 water danced and danced, and peeping out in sport 

 among the trees, plunged lightly down to hide them- 

 selves, as little Ruth and her companion came towards 

 it." The fountain has suflTered some modernising 

 changes since Dickens wrote those lines ; but in spite of 

 them there is still music in its sound, which calls up 

 dreams of other ages and of brighter gardens as it 

 tosses its spray into the murky air. 



" Away in the distance is heard the vast sound 

 From the streets of the city that compass it round. 

 Like the echo of mountains or ocean's deep call : 

 Yet that fountain's low singing is heard oyer all." 



— Miss Landon. 



Of all the incidents that are associated with particular 

 places, none stands out more vividly than the scene told 



