368 Coventina's Fountain, by the Rev. J. C. Bruce, LL.D. 



over the springs than thrown into the fountains themselves ? It 

 is incredible that the priests of Ooventina would allow her reser- 

 voir to be practically destroyed, by its being filled from bottom 

 to top with such a miscellaneous mass of material as was found 

 in it. The fountain of Bandusia, as described by Horace, was 

 remarkable for its resplendent clearness; " Fons splendidior 

 vitro ;" this could not have been the case if a mass of bronze 

 coinage, bones and pieces of iron had been thrown into it. Its 

 waters were occasionally tinged with an offering of wine, or the 

 blood of a kid ; but nothing seems to have been thrown into it 

 permanently to injure its purity. The shepherds resorting to 

 various pools were taught to pray to the deities presiding over 

 them to pardon them if their cattle in drinking had accidentally 

 polluted them: — 



" Nee noceat turbasse lacus ; ignoscite, Nymphse, 

 Mota quod obscuras ungula fecit aquas. 

 Tu, Dea, pro nobis fontes fontanaque placa 

 Numina, tu sparsos per nemus omne Deos."* 

 Ovid. Fasti. Bk. iv., 1. 757, &c. 

 Since such was the care with which the purity of a fountain 

 was preserved, it- is impossible to suppose that the well at Pro- 

 colitia, so long as Coventina was supposed to preside over it, 

 should have been filled up to a greater or less extent with a 

 mass of miscellaneous materials, many of which would 

 decompose and pollute the fluid. Coins and vessels of artistic 

 value have in modern times been found in wells and fountains, 

 that had once been the scenes of heathen worship ; but can we 

 be certain that these objects had not, as appears probable in the 

 present case, been thrown in for temporary concealment ? Can 

 we suppose that vessels so elaborately adorned as the Eudge 

 Cup were made only to be thrown into a well and covered up by 

 subsequent offerings? In the middle ages, offerings of jewels 

 and ex votos were exhibited in the sanctuary of the saint presiding 

 over each sacred spot or spring, and gifts of money were used 

 for sustaining the buildings and providing for the necessities and 

 comforts of the priests ; but these offerings were not buried in 



* Pardon me ye Nymphs if at any time the motion of the hoof has rendered 

 turbid the streams. Do thou goddess, for me, appease the fountains and the 

 deities of the fountains ; do thou propitiate the gods that are dispersed 

 throughout all the groves. 



