Water in the Formal Garden. 



163 



set a simple old Dutch bowl of stone, and to crown 

 the composition, the exquisite statuette by Gilbert 

 of a Dancing Boy, stung by a fly and holding a 

 tragic mask in his hand. It is very successful, 

 and the figure has that enchanting vitality which 

 makes it reasonable to call Gilbert the English 

 Carpeaux. It is characteristic of the casual, frag- 

 mentary career of this great artist that the bronze 

 stem should have lain unheeded in a dealer's 

 shop until the owner of Wych Cross Place found 

 for it a use so admirable. 



Among modern fountains made wholly of lead 

 a high place must be given to the composition 

 shown in Fig. 224. It consists of an octagonal 

 tank, decorated in flat relief with grapes and vine 

 leaves, combined with a tall fountain, in which its 

 designer and maker, Mr. George P. Bankart, has 

 gone for inspiration to a late mediaeval example 

 in the South Kensington Museum. The treatment 

 of the metal is exactly right ; the modelling is 

 softly done, and the corona at the top of the 

 fountain is in openwork of lace-like effect to which 

 lead lends itself so well. Simpler and smaller 

 tanks than this are very helpful in the water 

 equipment of any garden. Eighteenth century 

 tanks, such as that illustrated in Fig. 229, are 



FIG. 222. BY ALFRED GILBERT. 



FIG. 223. WALL FOUNTAIN AT HAMPTON COURT. 



