Illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct
" The delightful promenades, groves, and gardens belonging to the Doria family, are interspersed with fountains of various forms ; besides having a beautiful lake with waterfalls. Statues, antique basso relievos, and small fountains, adorn a kind of amphitheatre, where a circular edifice contains the marble figure of a fawn holding a flute, on which it seems to play different airs : the music, however, is produced by a machine resembling an organ in its construction, and motion being given to it by the flowing of the water from a cascade."
" Perhaps the few instances recited above will suffice to demonstrate the different modes employed at Rome, for calling into exercise genius, fancy, and taste, to diversify the
public edifices concerned with its abundant supply of water ;
thus rendering them subservient to magnificence, entertainment, and utility. Whilst John Dyer resided there, he viewed these celebrated fountains with the mingled feelings of the painter and the poet ; hence, associating them with
other interesting circumstances, they furnished the materials for one of his most striking and pathetic delineations.
' The pilgrim oft, At dead of night, 'mid his oraison hears Aghast the voice of Time, disparting towers, Tumbling all precipitate, down-dashed, Rattling around, loud thundering to the moon ;
While murmurs sooth each awful interval Of ever-falling waters ; shrouded Nile, Eridanus, and Tiber with his twins, And palmy Euphrates they with dropping locks ;
Hang o'er their urns, and mournfully among The plantive echoing ruins, pour their streams.' " Ruins of Rome.