The Great Fountain, Enville Gardens, the Seat of the Right Honble. the Earl of Stamford and Warrington

London: Published by T. McLean, 1857. Hand-coloured lithograph. Image size: 14 3/8 x 11 5/8 inches. Published in 1857, The Gardens of England is a series of 24 plates with accompanying text depicting the diverse luxuriant gardens of various distinguished English mansions. The mid-nineteenth century was a period during which the traditional aesthetics of garden design underwent a significant change in England, as innovative ideas and concepts were being continually introduced and explored. Brooke's publication embodies the eclectic nature of Victorian garden design and constitutes an important visual survey of the varied styles that were popular among the wealthy and fashionable. The Great Fountain, Enville, was a fountain created in the mid-19th century by the Earl of Stamford in the middle of a lake on his estate, Enville Hall, in Enville, Staffordshire, England. Adveno Brooke described the fountain in 1857: "As we stood admiring the beauty and tranquility of the scene, a bubbling sound of water, at first gentle and gathering force by degrees, broke out and we beheld the commencement of one of the most beautiful aquatic displays it is possible to conceive. This, the large fountain, is on a level with the surface of the lake, and composed of five jets, the central one throwing a column of water 150 feet high; the supply being obtained from a large reservoir on the hill, to which it is first pumped by the united action of two engines, each of thirty horsepower." Little is known about E. Adveno Brooke, other than that he exhibited at the Royal Academy and British Institution between 1853 and 1864 and his most significant publication was The Gardens of England.

Cf. Abbey, Scenery of Great Britain and Ireland, 392; cf. Benezit, Dictionnaire Des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, Vol. 2, p. 842.