270 
THE FLORIST. 
FOUNTAINS. 
All writers on landscape-gardening are agreed as to the importance 
of water in dressed grounds in some form or other; and as fountains 
offer a tasteful and ready means of introducing it into small gardens, 
as well as into large establishments, we have ventured to devote 
a page or two to the subject. 
These highly elegant garden decorations are of great antiquity. 
In Greece, every principal town had its public fountain, some of 
which were of handsome design and beautiful execution. The 
ancient fondness for fountains still exists in Italy and the East; and 
the French are celebrated for their jets d' eau. Some of those about 
Paris, as every body knows, are splendid structures. We are sorry 
to say, that we cannot state so much of the fountains of our own 
metropolis. New public parks have been formed of late years, and 
those long in existence have been improved. The taste for decora¬ 
tive architecture, too, seems to be on the increase; but our efforts 
to erect tasteful public fountains have hitherto proved singularly 
unhappy. But if our public fountains are failures, those in some 
of the gardens of the nobility are triumphs. Witness the “ Emperor” 
at Chatsworth, which, from a single jet, is stated to throw a column 
of water nearly 300 feet high. The force of this fountain may be 
imagined, when it is said, that in an hour it lowers an acre of 
water the depth of a foot. The fountain at the head of this article 
is a representation of one in the beautiful grounds of the Dowager 
Duchess of Northumberland, at Sion House. It is placed in front 
