Chap. 7.]

Singular Fountains at Pratolino,

537

other Asiatics, “ when the winter was past, the rain over and gone ; whenthe flowers appeared on the earth, and the time of the singing of birdswas come, and the voice of the turtle heard in the land ; when the fig treeput forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes gave a goodsmell”—to hie away to their villas, and in the figurative language of theEast* to dwell in gardens and feed among lilies. The custom is based onsome of the finest feelings of our nature, and it is on such occasions onlythat we can realize some of the most exquisite pleasures which our pro-genitors in Eden enjoyed. Motezuma, we are informed by Solis, tookpeculiar pleasure in supping in his gardens, in which were numerous foun-tains and flowers “ of delightful variety and fragrance.”

That the Jews had fountains in their gardens and often washed in thebasins during the heats of summer, we iearn from the accounts of Bath-sheba and Susannah 1 . The fountains doubtless being shaded with foliageand trees like those mentioned by Pliny .

Cato the censor, that terrible scourge of the luxurious Romans, ren-dered himself generally obnoxious by the reformations he introduced.Among other measures, “ he cut off the pipes by which people conveyedwater from the public fountains into their houses and gardens ,” probablyon account of its excessive waste in ornamental water-works. Plutarch has quoted an epigram, from which we learn that the physiognomy of thiscelebrated man, like that of Socrates and Phocion , was not very pre-possessing.

With eyes so grey and hair so red,

With tusks so sharp and keen,

Thou ’l fright the shades when thou art dead,

And hell wont let thee in. Langhorne’s Trans

To give an account of modern Street and garden fountains would bean endless task. Descriptions of the most remarkable, as those in thegardens of Frescati and Versailles, are too common to need repetition here.We shall therefore merely notice a few singulär ones.

There is no doubt that the general features and essential parts of ancientfancy water-works were preserved in those of modern Italy , whence theywere, including water-organs, spread over the rest of Europe . A sketchof those in the gardens at Pratolino will give, says an old writer, a generalidea of other Italian Works of the kind. “ Besides Tritons, Cupids, andother statues which on a sudden cover you with water, other streamsissue from between rows of trees, &c. You are led into a grotto, ofwhich the roof alone is said to have cost 30,000 ducats, being all of coral,mother of pearl, and other costly materials ; the walls are lined with thesame, and the pilasters adorned with an organ, which by means of waterplays several tunes. Here your eyes are diverted with a great varietyof moving figures : the god Pan strikes up a melodious tune with hismouth, at the sight of bis mistress Standing before him. In another grot,an angel carries a trumpet, puts it to his mouth, and gives you a tune uponit. In another, a clown carries a dish of water to a serpent , which lifts upits head and drinks it. Here you have a mill grinding olives—in anothera paper mill with the hammers going. The grotto of Galatea shows hercoming out of a door in a sea chariot with two nymphs, and having saileda while upon the water she returns the way she came. In the basin is alarge dolphin carrying a naked woman on his back, and swimming aboutwith several other figures, all moving as if alive. In another place, yousee a curious round table fit to receive fifteen guests, having a fountainplaying in the midst, while other streams play between every two personsand supply them with water to cool their wine. The woman of Samaria

68