ORNAMENTAL WATER, FOUNTAINS, 
ETC. 
At the foot thereof a gentle flud 
His silver waves did softly tumble downe, 
Unmarred with ragged mosse or filthy mud ; 
Ne mote wylde beastes, ne mote the ruder clowne, 
Thereto approch ; ne filth mote therein drowne : 
But nymphes and faeries by the bancks did sit 
In the wood’s shade which did the waters crown, 
Keeping all noisome things away from it, 
And to the waters fall tuning their accents fit, 
Spenser. 
T HE Romans delighted in their fish-ponds not so much as ornaments as 
preserves for epicurean delicacies. The lampreys were their water- 
gods, which, as in the case of Hortensius, they alternately petted and adored, 
and to whom they now and then sacrificed a human victim, not to appease 
the anger of the deities, but to satisfy their appetites, and improve them for 
the table. Our English fish-ponds and aquaria bring suggestions of a more 
domesticating character, in unison with our national feeling and love of rural 
elegance. Water is the life and soul of a garden, whether on the ground-plot 
