An universal system of water and water-works. Philosophical & practical... / by Stephen Switzer.

  • Stephen Switzer
Date:
1734
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An universal system of water and water-works. Philosophical & practical... / by Stephen Switzer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    fave his Country,) fold as much Lead towards the Fountains and Bafins, as brought him in at leaft 150000 /. Sterling, clear of all Expences. Those Pieces of Water (as they are by the French, by Way of. Irony termed) are by the Prints, as well as by the Accounts Tra¬ vellers bring, all noble and large, (though the Water itfelf be not very clear ;) and the Numbers of them are fuch, that there is not, in the Compafs I propofe to myfelf in this fhort Hiftory, Room to fet them down. To omit then the Fountains or Bafins of Saturn, Flora, Bac¬ chusCeres, and Latona, with the Pyramid in the Parterre on the. North-Corner of the Caftle, and many others of lefs Account, there are five or fix Pieces that claim the Attention of the molt Curious. * «i?i And the firftis the grand Obelifqueor Mountain of Water, which- has one very great Gerb compos’d of two hundred and thirty one Jets of Water, and which rifes fifty Foot high. The Obelifque, which is at leaft four or five Foot Diameter at the Bottom, and about one or two at Top, may bejuftly accounted one of the great* eft Pieces of Art and Expence (when we confider that innumerable Quantity of fmaller Pipes that join to compofe it) which is tobefeea in that or any other Country. The Bafin of Apollo is alfo fixty Toifes long, and forty five wide. TheGroupe of Apollo, with the Tritons, Sea-Horfes, and other Genii, with that grand Gerb which rifes feventy Toifes high in the Center of the Bafin, and fronting the Middle of the great Canal, the Defign of the famous Le Brun, may be juftly accounted amongft the greateft Works of that magnificent Place, The Bafin of Neptune, another Defign of that great Matter’s, is a moft beautiful Piece of Water, adorn'd as it is with above fifty large Jets, that play twenty or thirty Yards high each, and adorned with feveral Napes, and twenty two Veffels of fine Metal. This Bafin, according to the French Meafure, is one hundred Toifes long, and fixty wide; and being fituate at the lower End of the fine Alley of Water that comes through the Wood-Work, from the North-Corner of the Cattle, makes (as appears by all Accounts) one of the no- bleft Figures of any of the Water-Works about the Gardens. I shall but juft mention the grand-Theatre, and triumphant Arch of Water, the Defigns of Mr. Le Nautre and Le Brun, adorn'd by almoft an innumerable Company of leffer Fountains, Cafcades, Jets, Buffets, Groupes, and other Embellilhments; which when they are in order, and play,, are amongft the moft fiirprizing Works that Art ever yet form'd. But
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