1 68 



Gardens for Small Country Houses. 



memorials of a grandiose world which has not survived 



the clash of modern life may be well enough in a great 



English garden. For the smaller schemes of design, for 



which we are now considering the appropriate type of 



ornament, they are less fitted than a well-head built of 



brick or stone. It is, however, in their placing that 



most care is needed. The example at Sutton Courtenay 



(Fig. 238) stands well on its broad spread of paving, 



but very often one is seen set down on a grass plat 



without any suitable base, and looking lonely and 



useless. There is no reason why a well-head should not 



be used as a dipping- well or fitted with a jet and used for 



a fountain in a pool. Such a use renews its connection 



with water, but to employ it as a flower-pot is an 



indiscretion. Not to employ it at all, but to regard it 



merely as an ornament, seems justified only when it has 



marked merits as a piece of sculpture. The fact remains 



that Italian well-heads are appropriate in Italy and 



sometimes look awkward in an English garden, especially 



when they are not used in connection with a well, which 



rarely exists in a place where decorative emphasis is 



possible or desirable. 



Figures 236, 237 and 

 239 are concerned with 

 the more typical English 

 water engine, the pump. 

 In the eighteenth century 

 pump - heads were com- 

 monly made of lead and 



decorated with little lion masks, rosettes and dates. 

 Fig. 237 shows a good example, but placed as it is it 

 lacks meaning and looks uncomfortable. It is rather 

 difficult but possible to adjust such a pump-head to 

 the mechanism of a modern pump, and that method 

 seems the only reasonable one to adopt. An interesting 

 alternative is suggested by the foreign pump casing of 

 wood (Fig. 236), panelled and carved, now preserved in 

 the South Kensington Museum. The iron handle is 

 delightfully wrought, and the general effect suggests 

 that here is a field for decorative effort. There are 

 many gardens which rely for their watering on roof 

 water, bath wastes, etc., carefully gathered and 

 conducted to an underground cistern which needs 

 to be pumped for garden use. In such a case it is 

 good to have an attractive rather than a merely 

 utilitarian pump. This wood-cased example may 

 therefore be helpful in suggesting a covering treat- 

 ment for the modern pump of commerce. 



It sometimes happens that the well is close to 

 FIG. 237. LEAD PUMP-HEAD. the house, and occupies a prominent place in the 



FIG. 236. A WOODEN PUMP 

 CASING. 



