so 
House & Garden 
The wall fountain has 
many possibilities of 
treatment. It may offer 
sharp color contrast to 
its background, or be, as 
here, identical in tone and 
material. Walker & Gil¬ 
lette architects 
A PLEA FOR THE WALL FOUNTAIN 
A Garden Accessory Whose Possibilities, When it Is Well Designed and Suitably 
Placed, Entitle It to a Position of Honor in the Landscape Scheme 
AMY L. BARRINGTON 
T he wall fountain as a garden decoration 
has many possibilities. To these our 
architects are fully alive, but the general public 
is not so well informed. Fountains, lily basins 
and swimming pools are having their day, and 
nearly every well appointed country place has 
one or more of these attractions. But the small 
wall fountain, which is comparatively inex¬ 
pensive, has not heretofore had many admirers. 
There is nothing in the garden that adds more 
to it than does the fountain, assuming that it is 
well designed and properly placed. 
The setting has much to do with the success 
of a wall fountain. A small, quiet nook of a 
place is perhaps the best. Unexpectedly one 
comes upon the fairy plume of water, perhaps 
half lost in mist, or finds on a shadowy wall a 
satyr disdainfully spouting from his mouth 
into a wavy pool below. Again, it may be a 
sunny bowl where goldfish disport in glowing 
circles, or the fountain may be set in a garden 
wall with nearby benches where one sits to 
rest and listen to the small but constant silver 
stream. Though house and garden planning 
are closely akin, there is perhaps more pleasure 
(to a garden lover) to be found in the garden. 
The color, the endless variety of light and 
shade, the unexpected vistas that one comes 
across, the old friends among the flowers that 
one discovers, the fragrance of the roses and 
pungent box, and not least the wall fountain 
with its refreshing tinkle of water—all these 
fill the garden hours with delight. 
Size and Effect 
The popular idea that a fountain necessarily 
entails a large expense in the making is quite 
untrUe. Nor does it follow that because the 
fountain is small the pleasure of possessing it 
is equally so. Quite out of proportion to the 
size is the real enjoyment of. the fountain’s 
owner. Like the garden, it soon attains a per¬ 
sonality which appeals. Not long ago, when 
on a visit to a country place where the garden 
pool is surrounded by roses, I was interested 
in seeing how the goldfish came to the surface 
when the owner walked by. Darting gleams 
of black and gold shimmered where a moment 
before the pool had seemed entirely empty. 
This particular garden pool is a pet possession 
of the owner. 
To refer to the Old World gardens of Italy, 
France and England and their many famous 
fountains is to call to mind some of the beauty 
spots of the world. There the architects have 
used a small amount of water in creating the 
largest possible effect by utilizing it over and 
over, breaking it up by changing its movement, 
and making it into a picture by framing its 
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