AMERICAN 

 HOMES AND GARDENS 



The Garden Fountain 



By Ralph de Martin 



HE fountain is successful in the garden only 

 when it forms a definite part in the gar- 

 den scheme, and it may play the part 

 whether it be bumble or majestic, be 

 prominent or subordinate. The old 

 French garden architects were thoroughly 

 alive to its importance, as witness their 

 achievements in the grand fountains of Versailles and other 

 great French gardens. The Italians understood it, too, and 

 many other old designers in other countries, and not a few 

 great gardens are to-day better remembered for the foun- 

 tains that play in them than for any other reason. 



The European use of fountains; meaning by that phrase 



the older use of colossal fountains as arranged by European 

 designers, has no counterpart in America. The American 

 garden and the American fountain are conceived on a much 

 smaller scale than the great works produced in Europe to 

 the end of the eighteenth century. Flence there can be no 

 comparison between the two, and in viewing a collection of 

 American fountains, such as is shown in the accompanying 

 engravings, it is well to look at them as what they are, in- 

 teresting examples of garden furniture, or rather garden 

 decoration. 



In this aspect the fountain has a real value in the well 

 designed garden, provided, of course, a place is made for 

 it and it is suitable for that place. How beautifully^ this 



lountain and pool of a formal garden 



