and 18th centuries, designed to guide the new or newly rich gentleman in the creation and management of his estate, reflects the fashion for and the importance of fountains in garden design.JohnWorlidge’sSystemaHortiCulturaefor example, includes awhole chapter on water features, grottos and fountains including a range of trick fountains and water powered automata designed to mimic the sound of the nightingale. Afew decades later a slight note of realism is struck by Timothy Nourse in his book Compania Foelix with his advice that although fountains are very pleasant in Italy their use should, perhaps, be limited in the design of English gardens “When I consider the Nature of our Climate”.

The fashion for automata in the late 17th and early 18th centuries was part of a contemporary delight in discovery, of an interest in water and the properties of water, in the application of mechanics and in scientific experimentation. It was this approach to nature and the joy in display of the properties and in the manipulation of water which generated such highly artificial water features.

Later in the 18th century the emphasis on the natural and picturesque landscape meant thatthere was a fall off in the construction of obviously artificial water features. Although water remained as important as a decorative or even a structural element in the garden, the aesthetic approach had changed. This is seen in the literature of the time. It was all a question of taste. In his Unconnected thoughts on gardening (1755), William Shenstone comments that, “, . . it is always unnatural to see water rising into the air, contrary to its original tendency” water should fall as nature had intended and “only the vulgar citizen . . . squirts up his rivulets in jettaux”!

Of course, not all formal gardens were instantly swept away nor was there an immediate halt in the constructionofartificialwaterfeatures but there was a significant shift in taste and a move towards a more naturalistic effect in the design of gardens and landscapes.

The renaissance of the fountain came in the 19th century, again in response to the influence of Italian gardens and a return to a more ‘architectural’ approach to garden design. William Paxton, head gardener to the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, had accompanied his employer on a number of extensive continental tours and had seen at first hand the fountains and cascades of the Italian villas. Paxton’s Emperor Fountain at Chatsworth did

not escape contemporary criticism for being “forced too high for its substance” but it was clearly a great engineering feat, vet it was probably the vast Italianate gardens which Paxton designed around the Crystal Palace when it was re-erected at Sydenham which were more influential in relaunching the appeal of elaborate fountains and water features. Paxton’s creation included 12,000 fountain jets using, 120,000 gallons of water a minute with the fountains in the twin formal lakes shooting 250 feet into the air.

The expansion of middle-class urban housing and the laying out of the urban public parks now combined to create both a new demand and new sites for fountains and decorative water features. The new market was rapidly catered for by awide selection of book designs for fountains in a range of cheap, mass produced materials. Boulton and Paul’s catalogues for the period carried examples of fountains in cast iron while other firms supplied designs in marble, stone, terracotta, lead and bronze or a combination of these materials.

This rich variety of material alone gives an indication of the complexity of fountains and the range of professional expertise which may now need to be involved in restoration and maintenance programmes. Nor indeed should the fountain structure be seen in isolation; it has a context and a function and there may well be a designed relationship between the nature and style of the planting and the space around the fountain or cascade as part of an overall composition drawing together colour, texture, sound and motion.

The conservation and maintenance of fountains is a highly technical business and should draw on a multidisciplinary team. As with any form of historic site, the history of the fountain or water feature should first be recorded to determine its function or the number of periods of fabric which combine to create its present form. This should then be followed by a condition survey perhaps leading to a restoration programme and management plan for effective future maintenance to ensure the continued working of the feature.

Eachfountainorsetofwaterfeatures will have its own peculiarities but an outline check list of some general considerations relating to the conservation and maintenance of fountains and cascades might include the following points. First, what is the relationship of the fountain with the water itsell? For example, how is the water supplied to the fountain, how is it drained from it and managed through it. Is the fountain gravity fed or is the water forced through? How is the fountain constructed, what materials have been used?

A cascade or fountain is likely to be a ‘multi-material’ object and each material — copper, lead or stone, for example — will react differently over time and may require the formulation of ‘micro-management’ programmes. Look at the location of the fountain. Where is it situated in relation to the

Fountain and pool forming the central feature of the formal garden designed by Ellen Wilmott at Spetcbiey Park, Worcestershire.

A low key combination of pool, fountain and mask at Burton Agnes.

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