DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0018
8 CLASSICAL TOUR Ch.I.
it has an elevation of at least one hundred and
fifty feet above the level of the pavement. The
monument in London surpasses the obelisks in
elevation; but its shaft is not a single piece, nor
is it of Egyptian granite, nor is it inscribed with
hieroglyphics.
FOUNTAINS.
From the obelisks we pass to the fountains, be-
cause they are generally employed in the deco-
ration of the same squares, and sometimes united,
as in the Piazza Navona and at St. John Lateran,
to set each other off to more advantage. Three
only of the ancient aqueducts now remain to
supply modern Rome, and yet such is the quan-
tity they convey, and so pure the sources whence
they derive it, that no city can boast of such a
profusion of clear and salubrious water. Arti-
ficial fountains in general are little better than or-
namented pumps, which sometimes squirt out a
scanty thread of water, and sometimes distil only
a few drops into a muddy basin. Those on a
greater scale now and then throw up a column, or
pour a torrent as occasion may require, on certain
state days, or for the amusement of some distin-
guished personage; and then subside till a fresh
supply enables them to renew the exhibition.
Such are in general the fountains and cascades
it has an elevation of at least one hundred and
fifty feet above the level of the pavement. The
monument in London surpasses the obelisks in
elevation; but its shaft is not a single piece, nor
is it of Egyptian granite, nor is it inscribed with
hieroglyphics.
FOUNTAINS.
From the obelisks we pass to the fountains, be-
cause they are generally employed in the deco-
ration of the same squares, and sometimes united,
as in the Piazza Navona and at St. John Lateran,
to set each other off to more advantage. Three
only of the ancient aqueducts now remain to
supply modern Rome, and yet such is the quan-
tity they convey, and so pure the sources whence
they derive it, that no city can boast of such a
profusion of clear and salubrious water. Arti-
ficial fountains in general are little better than or-
namented pumps, which sometimes squirt out a
scanty thread of water, and sometimes distil only
a few drops into a muddy basin. Those on a
greater scale now and then throw up a column, or
pour a torrent as occasion may require, on certain
state days, or for the amusement of some distin-
guished personage; and then subside till a fresh
supply enables them to renew the exhibition.
Such are in general the fountains and cascades