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A FOUNTAIN.
PLATE XXII.
A FOUNTAIN.
PLATE XXIII.
THE FRONTISPIECE.
SOURCES of water, were respected or held sacred, from very
high antiquity in Eastern nations, as is recorded by historians both
sacred and profane. The Greeks, Tuscans, and Romans also,
employed them as useful and decorative architecture; and hence
they were adopted by the Italians and the French. In the
formation of the celebrated gardens of Versailles, they were in-
troduced in profuse magnificence, and became a prime feature
in all the varieties of falls, fountains and jets-d'eau. Fashion
immediately took them up, and water was spouting every where;
no place was complete without a fountain, and the first recom-
mendation of the tasteful towards the embellishment of a garden,
court, walk, or alley, was " certainly place a fountain there."-
But in art, as in matters of less importance, it frequently happens,
that fashion encroaches upon, or supercedes the more steady pa-
tronage of fitness and propriety; and in her vacillating progress,
adopts or discards, equally without reflection; and, in her dis-
missal, the subject, which was hitherto her pride and boast,
becomes as obnoxious to her distaste. Thus it was with the
fountain in ornamental gardening.
As in other cases where fashion predominates, its fulness pro-
duced its fall;-their absurd adoption in most instances, with
the incessant repetition of them, occasioned satiety and disgust,
consequently they were demolished with as little regard to fine
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