347 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
THE STONE BOAT FOUNTAIN IN ROME. 
people; the best known is the Trevi, where travelers, 
on departure, are wont to toss a coin as an assurance 
that they may return to the Eternal City ; and the most 
frequented, the Barcaccia, a tasteless stone boat erected 
to commemorate an artificial lake once existing on that 
spot, where mimic naval battles were fought. About 
this boat the little boy and girl artists are apt to con- 
gregate, in order to secure engagements with artists. 
However, the loveliest environment for decorative 
waters is that of the Egerian fountain on the Pincio, 
overlooking ancient Rome. Listening to the mur- 
mur of the marble Egeria's streamlets, I watched the 
setting sun as it changed the dome of St. Peter's Ca- 
thedral to an inverted bowl of gold, and cast broad 
stripes of crimson and orange across the Vatican roofs. 
Byron’s lines to the reflected goddess who is priestess 
in that verdant shrine recurred to me. 
“The mosses of thy foun- 
tain still are sprinkled. 
With thine Elysian water 
drops.” 
Florence is also rich in 
carved receptacles for wa- 
ter display. The one by 
Lorenzi, in the Boboli gar- 
dens, is advantageously 
placed in a depression of 
the gi'ounds. It represents 
Ocean with attendant mer- 
men and mermaids and is 
an ever present solace to 
the fevered. So is that 
other tribute to Neptune in 
the park at Schonbrunn, 
Austria. This elaborate 
composition of gods, 
nymphs and sea-horses 
which guard a marble grot- 
to, are outlined against a 
thicket of trees, the whole 
forming a magnificent 
scene when the various jets and showers are placing , 
about the many figures. 
The Austrians love to represent their rivers by ' 
symbols, and the monumental fountain in Vienna, near 
the Albert Palace, is adorned with figures personating ; 
the Danube and its tributaries. An odd sight in 
the Nuer Markt is a huge basin decorated with bronze j 
figures. ( )ne is seated so that a brown foot is ex- ; 
tended over the edge, as if inviting the shake of one’s j 
hand. I wondered, as I stood admiring it, how long I 
the perfect condition of that foot would have lasted | 
if the surrounding street urchins had been Americans. | 
The source of the beloved river of the Austrians, the , 
Danube, is at Donaueschingen, where the natural | 
fountain is surrounded by an ornate stone basin with | 
steps. During the Middle Ages the prevailing style j 
in fountain designing, in Germany and France, was I 
like this model. These old 
rivers, rich in historic as- | 
sociations, furnish abun- | 
1 
dant material for the imag- ( 
illative sculptor. The tra- j 
ditions that have grown up 
about them have been well 
utilized as particularly ap- 
propriate for fountains. 
The legendary source of 
the fountain may take the 
form of portrayals of the 
grotesque figures, the em- 
bodiment of some of the 
well-known local traditions, 
folk-lore or a childish, fan- j 
ciful story. European i 
towns and cities are rich ) 
in material of this charac- | 
ter, and many interesting 
specimens of odd designs 
may be seen by the trav- 
eler. 
(To be continued.) 
FOUNTAIN OF NEPTUNE, IN GARDENS OP BOBOLI, 
FLORENCE. 
.1 
