Upper Basin of the Fountain in the Piazza Scossa Cavalli 25 View of the Piazza del Campidoglio from the Left Side of the Cordonata 47 One of the Fountains in the Piazza Farnese 71 Fountain of the Virgins 91 Fountain of the Tartarughe 137 The Fountain of the Sea-Horses 183 The Fountain of the Amorini 191 The Fountain of the Triton 209 The Fountain of the Four Rivers 217 Figure of “Neptune” in the Fountain of Trevi 233 Piazza del Popolo from the West 247 Mostra of the “Fontanone” 279 The Fountain of Monte Cavallo 291 ERRATA Page 170, line 18, for London read Westminster. Page 221, line 25, for Leo X read Innocent X. Page 232, line 22, for Tre-vii read Trevie. [Illustration] INTRODUCTION Rome has been called the most religious city in the world because of the number of her churches. With equal propriety, and perhaps with greater justice, she might be called the cleanest city in the world because of the number of her fountains. Pagan emperors and Christian popes alike have found both profit and pleasure in adding another fountain or in making or repairing one more aqueduct to give a still greater supply of water to the Roman populace. No other people, with the possible exception of the Spanish Moors, have so appreciated the value and the beauty of abundant water. There are few squares, even in the Rome of to-day, where, at least in the silence of the night, the sound of splashing water may not be heard. The tiny fountain, often fern-fringed, with its ceaseless, slender stream of water, is the one priceless possession in hundreds of old courtyards, where it fills a damp and lonely silence with charm, or redeems by its indestructible quality of beauty the meanness of the squalid life about it. It is impossible to think of Rome without her fountains. Yet, after a few weeks, the eye is hardly aware of their presence. It is as if by their very beauty and omnipresence they had acquired the divine attributes of sunlight; and it requires the silence, as with the sunlight it requires the cloud, to rouse our consciousness to their existence. They take their place among the elemental causes of happiness, since the pain we feel at their loss is the only adequate measure of the pleasure they give us.