Fountains in Books….





I recently posted on Dorothy Bowers’ WW2 crime novel Deed Without a Name. The murder victim lives in Mulberry Fountain, an imaginary square in London’s Chelsea with a fountain in the middle:

When Pardoe left the house the square was as tranquil and deserted as Sunday afternoon in autumn could make it. He paused for a moment by the fountain which gives its name to the place, a pompous marble structure at the bottom where Trumpeter’s Row runs into Smith Street. Eighteenth century infants of highly muscular physique and simpering demeanour, whose stupid attempts to clutch the thrashing hooves of Neptune’s horses had kept them in jeopardy a century and a half, made a most unpleasing group in those quiet surroundings. No water played now; only blown leaves and a drift of dust, like the last whispers of its century, lay in the basin.


This made me think – are there no beautiful fountains in literature? There’s a splendid bit in Philippa Gregory’s Other Boleyn Girl, where Anne Boleyn has had a fountain made as a gift for Henry VIII:

It was a most astounding sight: a fountain made of gold inlaid with diamonds and rubies. At the foot of the fountain were three naked women, also wrought of gold, and from their teats spouted springs of more water.

‘My God,’ said George, truly awed. ‘How much did it cost you?’

‘Don’t ask,’ Anne said. ‘It is very grand, isn’t it?’

‘Grand.’ I didn’t add: ‘But vilely ugly,’ though I could tell from George’s stunned expression that he thought the same.

Now we turn to JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Harry has been summoned to the Ministry of Magic:

Halfway down the hall was a fountain. A group of golden statues, larger than life-size, stood in the middle of a circular pool. Tallest of them all was a noble-looking wizard with his wand pointing straight up in the air. Grouped around him were a beautiful witch, a centaur, a goblin and a house-elf. The last three were all looking adoringly up at the witch and wizard. Glittering jets of water were flying from the ends of their wands, the point of the centaur’s arrow, the tip of the goblin’s hat and each of the house-elf’s ears.



[the picture shows a model by Magical Miniatures]

And in Pursuit of Love, the blog favourite by Nancy Mitford, this is one of Fanny’s Christmas presents:

I must admit that my wicked parents turned up trumps at Christmas, and my presents from them were always the envy of the entire household. This year my mother, who was in Paris, sent a gilded bird-cage full of stuffed humming-birds which, when wound up, twittered and hopped about and drank at a fountain.



Somewhere between the two pictures, but undeniably creepy-sounding.

Then I remember reading somewhere (and this is NOT MY VIEW) that Irish towns never have nice fountains. Can this be true?

Ireland was being contrasted with Europe and that prompted my helpful memory to come up with a  counter-argument, AND it’s in one of my favourite books, the magical Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay.

Saffy goes on holiday to Italy with her friend Sarah’s family, and they are in a hotel in a square in Siena.

Sarah says: ‘Look at the lovely fountain! Squirting dragons!’

‘Lions’ said her mother after a careful look.

‘They’ve got wings!’ said Sarah.

‘Those are their manes!’ said Mrs Warbeck.

Enter the majestic Mr Warbeck – one of the finest characters in any book ever. (I sent Saffy’s Angel to a friend and she texted me to say ‘I am in love with Sarah’s father’ – the details are here):

‘I may take a stroll out to have a look at those squirting dragons across there. That fountain is very badly set up. It is losing water all the time. I’ve noticed already. It’s the angle of that top jet.’

Mr Warbeck can see what is wrong: ‘That fountain was potentially lethal! One good hard frost and there would have been a sheet of ice all over the square!’ The hotel manager summons an engineer who makes a correction according to Mr Warbeck’s calculations, and everyone is delighted. The Warbecks plan to return next year to visit the fountain.

The top picture is not Siena, but I thought was a very nice fountain that might be a lion or a dragon.

So I found one! A beautiful fountain in a book. Does anyone have any more?

A nicely niche question. I’m not really expecting a flow of suggestions, but happy to hear about fountains good or bad…





These pictures show the Perseus and Andromeda fountain at Witley Court in Worcestershire. It probably demonstrates that this is subjective, and that beautiful is on a knife-edge with ugly: I think this fountain, which I have visited several times, is very beautiful, YMMV.





ADDED LATER: Of course people came up with great suggestions. See comments below. Other books mentioned were Tom's Midnight Garden & AND Hilary McKay herself came up with two, from E Nesbit and PL Travers, in this tweet:



Comments

  1. Ooh, that's really interesting, Moira! Thanks for sharing those examples of fountains. I'll have to keep thinking about it and seeing if I can think of other examples. I know they're out there...

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  2. Sorry to clutter up your comments, but I thought of one, Moira. There's a small fountain in C.J. Sansom's Dissolution. It's at a monastery, and it's used for washing hands. It's small, and not overly decorative, but it adds to the scenes that take place there. I know there are others, too...

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    1. Thanks Margot for both comments! and that's a great catch from the Sansom - a book I love.

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  3. Dorothy Sayers, The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head (in Lord Peter Views the Body). The dragon is a fountain with a secret.

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    1. Susanna Tayler3 April 2022 at 20:48

      And Murder Must Advertise - Wimsey as Death Bredon, being a right show-off climbing a fountain and diving in: "He was climbing the statue-group in the centre of the pool – an elaborate affair of twined mermaids and dolphins, supporting a basin in which crouched an amorino, blowing from a conch-shell a high spout of dancing water."
      The fountain sounds a bit show-offy as well.

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    2. Thanks both - great additions to the list. I need to brush up on my Sayers...

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  4. Isn't there rather a nice fountain in Brideshead Revisited? Or was that in the 1980s TV series only? Or am I thinking of visiting Castle Howard and mixing it up with Waugh's Brideshead? Finding it really difficult to sort out what is what here.

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    1. There is a fountain at Brideshead. - I think it's based on a real one somewhere, but no idea idea where!

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    2. I just looked it up, and yes you are right, and it's an important symbol in the book, of Catholic values. And it came from Italy, and Julia keeps returning to it apparently.

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  5. I think this may be the origin of the Gregory fountain. It's a Holbein sketch for a table fountain and the design includes Anne Boleyn's falcon badge:

    https://www.hans-holbein.org/Design-For-A-Table-Fountain-With-The-Badge-Of-Anne-Boleyn.html

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    1. Thanks Ann, that's a great find. Not that ugly though!

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  6. Was there a fountain in the book "Atonement" or only in the movie?

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    1. Susanna Tayler6 April 2022 at 11:27

      Yes! According to a book it's a half-scale reproduction of Bernini's Triton fountain from the Piazza Berberini in Rome.

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    2. The Fountain of St. James Court by Sena Jeter Naslund: "... surmounted by a sculpture of Venus rising from the sea... A bronze scarf billowed around the figure's back and modestly covered her loins in front".

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    3. Well with that title I am assuming it must be beautiful. I don't know the book at all, is it good?

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    4. To tell the truth I don't remember much about it :-) I read it because I'm interested in Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.

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    5. Now she is an interesting character! I could be tempted by a book about her.

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