538

Musical Fountains—Artificial Trees.

[Book V.

appears next, coming out of her house with two buckets, and having filledthem, goes back the same way. Meantime you are diverted with smithsthumping, mills going, and biräs chirping on trees —all which are set towork by the water.”

In Dr. H. Brown’s Travels, (Lond. 1685,) are figures of one or twoancient fountains—one, in Carinthia, of the form of a dragon, from whosemouth the water issued.

In the year 916, an embassy proceeded from Constantinople to Bagdadand was received with much pomp by the Caliph Moctader. “ In themidst of the great hall in which he gave audience to the ambassadorswas a tree of massy gold, which had (amongst others) eighteen principalbranches, whereon were birds of gold and silver, which clapped theirwings, and warbled various notes.”—(Martigny ’s History of the Arabians,iii, 323.)

Marco Paulo, in the 13th Century, mentions a fountain in the gardensof the “ Old man of the Mountain,” which gave out wine, milk, and amixture of honey and water.

Rubriques, in the same Century, saw a silver tree at the court of theGreat Khan, which poured forth milk and wines of different kinds. Atthe foot were four lions, through each of which passed a tube. On thesummit was the figure of an angel holding a trumpet, and which by someinterior mechanism was made to sound. It was the work of a French goldsmith.

This predilection for trees as Ornaments for fountains and gardens seemsto have been of a more ancient dato. The palm tree of brass, which wasconsecrated to Apollo by Nicias , and placed in a field or garden purchasedby him, probably served for a fountain. It must have been of enormousdimensions, since a fragment that was blown off by a storm of wind, “ fall-ing upon a large Statue demolished it.” (Plutarch in Nicias .) Thepedestal of this statue has been discovered. A golden statue of Pallas,Plutarch observes, was erected in the temple of Delphi on a palm treeof brass, which had golden fruit. There are two other celebrated treesmentioned in history, but their uses are not indicated. We learn fromHerodotus , vii, 27, that Pythius, a native of Lydia, presented Darius witha plane tree of gold. It was worth 5J millions sterling according to Mont-faucon. The golden vine of Aristobolus was valued at 400 talents. Itwas carried through Rome in Pompey’s third triumph, and afterwarddeposited in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. Another one, whichAlexander took at the sack of Thebes , was preserved at Rome in thetemple of Apollo in Pliny ’s time. This author has a remark on the decayof the art of working brass, which may here be noticed. He observes,in former tirnes the artists worked to win fame and glory , “ but now as inall things eise for gain and lucre only,” (xxxiv, chap. 2.)

One of the fountains at Versailles was in the form of an oak tree, fromwhich the liquid was dispersed in all directions. (It is figured in one ofthe plates attached to Switzer’s work.)

Among the garden water-works at Chatsworth were, “ 1. Neptune withhis nymphs, who seem to sport in the waters, let out by a cock in severalcolumns, and falling upon sea-weeds ; 2. a pond where sea-horses con-tinuallv roll ; 3. a tree cf copper, resembling a willow, and by the turningof a cock every leaf drops water, which represents a shower; 4. a groveof cypress and a Cascade with two sea nymphs at top with jars undertheir arms ; 5. at the bottom of the Cascade a pond with an artificial rose,through which by the turning of a cock the water ascends, and hangs in