House and Garden 
Vol. V 
April, 1904 
No. 4 
GARDEN FOUNTAINS 
By MRS. STEUART ERSKINE 
F OUNTAINS have, from time imme¬ 
morial, exercised a peculiar fascination 
over the mind of man. The combination 
of the artist’s skill with the resources of 
Nature, the mingling of stone and marble 
with the ever-changing, sparkling, 
dripping, tumbling element ot 
water, constitute a whole which 
makes of two separate harmonies 
a delight to both eye and ear. 
The history of the evolution of 
fountains is much like the history 
of the evolution of any other form 
of art. It arose, in the first place, 
from necessity, the masonry being 
simply a protection for a rising 
spring or an artificial setting for 
a natural water supply. 'The set¬ 
ting gradually increased in beauty 
and importance until, too often, it 
became a pretentious building 
which was merely an excuse for 
display and hardly expressed the 
purpose for which it was made. 
From the rude but simple and 
beautiful Venetian well-heads to a 
marble monstrosity such as the 
Fountain of Trevi, what a step ! 
Art had indeed progressed onwards 
from the rude state to perfection, 
and on to decadence, over-orna¬ 
ment, display and meaningless 
skill. 
The designer of fountains in 
past times, who wished not only 
to create a beautiful work of art, 
but one which should be in har¬ 
mony with its surroundings, had 
a fairly easy task before him. 
Architecture, which is now a dead 
A BRONZE FOUNTAIN 
By Derwent IVood 
Now in the Rose Garden at 
JViseton Hall , England 
art, was then a part of the life of the people— 
an outcome and expression of nationality. 
Now that there is no sharply defined style 
of architecture, framed to suit the needs and 
ideals of a nation or the exigencies of a cli¬ 
mate, the horizon is widened to a 
rather perplexing extent. We can 
copy, it is true, the style of archi¬ 
tecture used in any century and 
in any country, but the result is 
not always happy. 
The market-place of an English 
country town may boast ot some 
old timber houses descended from 
the sixteenth century, of a modern 
Gothic church and ot a new town 
hall successfully copied from the 
style which obtained in England 
in the reign of Queen Anne. A 
fountain is to be placed in the 
center of the market-place. What 
form shall the artist select from the 
pattern-book of all the centuries ? 
A square or circus in a great 
modern town is surrounded by 
shops which have no distinctive 
form of their own, but each of 
which differs from the other. Sky 
signs deface the roofs upon one 
side; an advertisement is written 
in flames on the other; the mid¬ 
dle distance is composed ot multi¬ 
colored cars and teams, while in¬ 
congruously dressed people occupy 
the foreground. How is the artist 
to design a fountain for the center 
of such a place which shall be in 
harmony with such very diverse 
surroundings, not one of which is 
in harmony with the other ? 
Copyrighted IQ04 by Henry T. Coates <Sa Co. 
1 53 
