Ornamental Water, Fountains , Etc. 
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enough for any thoroughly competent and ingenious person to make a fortune 
by the establishment in country houses of economical water-works. In many 
private houses small gas-works are in operation, but there are many substitutes 
for gas, and there is no substitute for water. When you have a great supply 
of water by surface drainage, the only question of its conversion to tank water 
for domestic purposes is one of pure mechanism, and a mere beginner in 
engineering could devise plans for the appropriation of every drop at such a 
comparatively low rate of cost as should, in many instances, render well- 
sinking and boring most ridiculous. 
Let us suppose a property to be completely drained, it is a mechanical 
matter to collect the water somewhere; a mechanical matter to take it from 
thence by means of the hydraulic ram to any higher level if there is any¬ 
where near a moderate fall, whether natural or artificial. Even the water 
used to afford mechanical power to the ram need not be wasted ; and ? 
having got a ram to work, the water may as well be carried to the top of a 
house or the top of a hill or tower, as to any level midway between such 
extremes. The next business is to make this water subservient to utility and 
ornament at one and the same time. The quantity which can be kept 
flowing, and the volume of the reserve, on which the works will have to rely 
during a long drought, must to some extent determine the nature of the 
ornamental purpose to which the water may be applied ; it may sometimes 
furnish a cascade, and send silvery spray through a rocky glen clothed with 
myriads of mosses and ferns, or furnish a little spring or fountain to splash 
over a stone into a nook full of freshness, and thence flow to the lake again, 
or to fill the tanks which supply the garden. 
And, me before, I saw a little well 
That had his course, as I could well behold, 
Under a hill, with quick streamis and cold. 
The gravel goldn ; the water pure as glass, 
The bankis round the well environing, 
And soft as velvet was the younge grass 
That thereupon hastily came springing. 
The suit of trees, abouten compassing, 
Their shadow cast closing the well around, 
And all the herbis growing on the ground. 
It must never be forgotten that the disposal of water-scenes demands the 
exercise of great taste and judgment. Water of itself is always beautiful, but 
