Garden Statuary Fountains

Few architectural decorations in the garden have so interesting an effect as statuary fountains, and being capable of an inexhaustible variety of design, situation and magnitude, it is rather a matter of surprise that their beauties have been neglected, ever since the general abandonment of them nearly a century ago. At that time certainly their whimsical and profuse introduction in all places, suitable and otherwise, naturally satiated the taste, and was eventually altogether fatal to their cultivation; but, since they have been excluded so long from our country, the motive which effected it, is surely banished also, and they may again very correctly meet with encouragement, and succeed to some of the patronage by which far lss valuable material is now fostered.

When a supply of water is adequate, fountains may in most cases be introduced with propriety; for it is that part of their artificialness which implies scarcity of water, and manual labour in effecting a display of its powers, that is ugly to true taste; and surely it must be most painful to witness such a display, when it is known that, to produce it, a poor fellow, hid in some nook of the premises, is pumping most lustily, and anxiously wishing you would turn your attention to some other object, that his labour may be over. It was formerly, however, no unordinary thing to witness extensive displays at the expense of proportionately laborious means.