WATER GARDENS 109 



of everlasting life a tree with a spring of water at its roots ; 

 and this same idea, a feeling that water is the life, the 

 mainstay, and the chief ornament of a garden, was firmly 

 ingrained in every Italian. Thus it was no doubt from 

 Italy that Le Notre learnt how to gain animation, gaiety, 

 and sparkle from dancing, foaming, agitated water ; how 

 to secure the grandeur of the thundering cascade or the 

 murmuring, whispering, rioting sounds of running water. 



We feel sure, too, that, in order to complete that 

 charmingly graceful " Theatre d'Eau " painted by Cotell, 

 where tall single-spray fountains rise against dark recesses 

 in a half-circular yew-hedge, he must have studied many 

 of the spray fountains of the Generalife and Alhambra 

 gardens. It was after wanderings through the silence, 

 dust, and glare of the desert that the Arabs sought the 

 cool sound of bubbling, trickling, falling water, the shadow 

 of trees in these Spanish gardens. There is a proverb of 

 the Moors, adapted from the Hindu, which says that three 

 sounds are dear to a man, the chink of gold, the voice of 

 the woman he loves, and the noise of running water. 

 Certain it is that in Spain they fully understand how best 

 to obtain this soothing, restful music, and also how to lead 

 water to rise in slender diamond-sparkling sprays so that 

 rainbow hues are sent into the air and fall again lightly 

 like dew upon flowers. 



What more practical, and yet more fairy-like, effect 

 could be achieved in any garden than to leave small 

 crevices between tiles or bricks of paths, through which 

 sprays of water rise gracefully and fall, as the wind carries 

 them across an adjoining herbaceous border ? 



There was another country from which Le Notre took 

 ideas, and that was Holland. If beautiful, clear, vivid 

 water-reflections are sought (and these, after all, are what 

 give most pleasure in a scene that is much before our 

 eyes), water must have a quiet surface. Should the banks 



