FOUNTAIN. A fountain is a jet or jets of water, flowing either naturally out of the earth, or from structures formed by art. Artificial fountains consist of water flowing from statues, vases, or architectural buildings combined with sculptured figures and other ornamental decorations. At Pompeii not only the streets but even the private houses were decorated with fountains. At Rome, the proper distri bution of the rivers which flowed through her aqueducts was a matter of great importance, intrusted to the care of an officer of very high rank. The aqueducts were each charged with a certain number of pipes of supply; and no new pipe could be inserted without a special application to the emperor. Those whose means of interest were insufficient to obtain a private pipe, were obliged to fetch water from the public fountains.
Some of the cities of Italy and the East are adorned with fountains, which are no less agreeable to the eye than useful to the inha bitants. Many of the fountains of Rome are highly decorated, of great magnitude, and very varied in their mode of ejecting the waters with which they are supplied from the exist ing aqueducts.
The city of Paris is well supplied with fountains, many of which are elegantly de signed. The fountains of Versailles and St. Cloud in France, and the fountains at Wil helmshohe near Cassel, are the largest in Europe. London has no fountains worthy of notice except the two large ones in Trafalgar Square, which are supplied from a very deep artesian well ; and these have been severely criticised as works of art.
The great fountain, planned by Mr. Paxton for the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, is in all probability the loftiest in the world. It presents one single jet that rises to a perpen dicular height of 270 feet. The pressure is derived from a previous descent of water from a height of 390 feet. A reservoir has been formed at that height, in some hills which bound the eastern side of the park ; and more than half a mile of piping is employed to convey the water from the reservoir to the fountain.