276 LONDON PARKS & GARDENS 
the quadrangle, all paved with Purbeck, very pleasant 
and delightful." In an eighteenth-century picture, with 
groups of strollers and a lady passing the gay company 
in her sedan chair, the palings are superseded by fine 
iron railings enclosing the lofty jet, its marble basin, and 
shady trees. The pavement ended with the terrace wall 
overlooking the garden below, and the Thames covered 
at high tide what is now the lower part of the lawn. 
The Fountain Court has inspired many a thought which 
has found expression in prose and verse, but no picture 
is more vivid or well known than the figure of Ruth 
Pinch, in “ Martin Chuzzlewit,” waiting for her brother 
“ with the best little laugh upon her face that ever 
played in opposition to the fountain,” or the description 
at the end, of that crowning day to her happiness, when 
she walks there with John Westlock, and “Brilliantly 
the Temple Fountain splashed in the sun, and laughingly 
its liquid music played, and merrily the idle drops of 
water danced and danced, and peeping out in sport 
among the trees, plunged lightly down to hide them¬ 
selves, as little Ruth and her companion came towards 
it.” The fountain has suffered some modernising 
changes since Dickens wrote those lines; but in spite of 
them there is still music in its sound, which calls up 
dreams of other ages and of brighter gardens as it 
tosses its spray into the murky air. 
« Away in the distance is heard the vast sound 
From the streets of the city that compass it round, 
Like the echo of mountains or ocean’s deep call: 
Yet that fountain’s low singing is heard over all.” 
—-Miss Landon. 
Of all the incidents that are associated with particular 
places, none stands out more vividly than the scene told 
