126 A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN ENGLAND. 



made divers great pools, he begs him to procure one skilful 

 therein, as certain banks he has made that year about a great 

 pool, have given wa}- through unskilfulness of the workmen," * 

 The pools at Loseley must have been some time in existence, 

 as on December 21st, 1581, Henry Sledd, Queen Elizabeth's 

 fishmonger, wrote to Sir William More, offering to buy some 

 carp out of his pond. He offers from i2d. to i8d. a piece, 

 according to their size, and adds, " Yf I see the}' be more 

 worthe .... I will mend the pryse." t 



Of the first kind of fountain there were man}- examples in 

 the finest gardens at the time when Bacon wrote. Frederick, 

 Duke of Wurtemberg, describes the one he saw at Hampton 

 Court, in 1592 % '■ — " In the middle of the first and principal 

 court stands a splendid high and massy fountain, with an 

 ingenious water-work, by which you can, if you like, make 

 the water to play upon the ladies and others who are standing 

 by, and give them a thorough wetting." Of this same fountain 

 Norden wrote in 1598, " Queen Elizabeth hathe of late caused 

 a very beautiful fountaine there to be erected in the second 

 court, which graceth the Pallace, and serveth to great and 

 necessarie use ; the fountaine was finished in 1590, not without 

 great charge." Another of the same sort was to be seen at 

 Whitehall, and is described by Hentzner, in 1598 : — " A jet 

 d'eau with a sundial, which, while strangers are looking at it 

 a quantity of water forced by a wheel which the gardener turns 

 at a distance, through a number of little pipes, plentifully 

 sprinkles those that are standing round." Hentzner also visited 

 Nonsuch, and notices several fountains. In the " privy gardens " 

 were two " that spurt water one round the other like a pyramid 

 upon which are perched small birds that stream water out of 

 their bills." In the " Grove of Diana," was one "with Actaeon 

 turned into a stag as he was sprinkled by the goddess and her 

 nymphs/' and a " pyramid of marble full of concealed pipes 

 which spurt upon all that come near." The word "jet d'eau" 



* MS. letter at Loseley, Surrey. t Ibid. 



\ Translation, 1602 — printed in England as Seen by Foreigners. By 

 Brenchley Rye, 1865. 



