THE DECORATIVE TREATMENT OF WATER. 



a simple stone verge level with the grass, and in the centre a bronze figure supporting 

 the jet, while at Lewiston Manor (111. No. 238) the Author designed a simple fountain 

 of this kind, which is surrounded by a basin edged with two concentric steps leading 

 down to the water, the upper one level with the surrounding paths, thus obtaining a 

 strongly marked line of enclosure without over-elaboration. Many other well-known 

 examples will no doubt be familiar to the reader. 



A single jet may also be used in conjunction with formal lily ponds, such as that 

 at Wych Cross, Sussex, shown in illustration No. 240 ; or two such jets may rise from 

 either end of a long pond, as at Athelhampton Hall, Dorsetshire, and wherever there 

 is a tendency for any formal canal or pond to appear at all stagnant, such a fountain 

 may be used to remove this impression. 



Simple 

 designs. 



FIG. 239. FOUNTAIN AT ROME. 



Turning now to more elaborate fountains, we are at once struck with the very 

 unaccountably large proportion of failures we meet with in their design and placing. If 

 we dismiss the cast-iron fountain made from the iron-founder's stock patterns as being 

 too vulgar for even serious condemnation, we still find that most of the remaining stone 

 or terra-cotta fountains with any pretensions to elaboration are quite unworthy of the 

 positions which they occupy. With regard to the latter material, it is sufficient to say 

 that, while there would seem to be no valid reason why effective erections should not 

 be possible in the more sober-coloured and stone-like surfaced terra-cottas, it has seldom 

 been done, possibly because the many meretricious designs produced by the manufacturers 

 of this material have disgusted capable men with it. The reason for the preponderance 

 of heavy and over-elaborated stone fountains, with the highly polished granite columns 

 and freestone caps surrounded by elaborately foliated cusps which form their stock 

 ornament, is more difficult to find, and one can only conclude that the great importance of 

 a well-balanced design, with the details carefully proportioned, is not generally understood 



More 



elaborate 



fountains. 



179 



