Loch Katrine Memorial Fountain

The Loch Katrine Memorial Fountain is a public landmark in Glasgow whose modest freshness and repeated appearances give it significance as both a refuge from the city and a stage for intimate encounters. Archibald McCandless first approaches it seeking relief from polluted air; later, he meets Bella Baxter and Godwin Baxter there after seventy weeks apart, and the fountain also marks the setting of verses he sends Bella during his courtship.

Setting and Contrast

After a fortnight of hot, cloudless weather, smoke and gases hung over Glasgow, coating the surroundings in a gritty haze. Walking beside the Kelvin River, McCandless sees paper-mill effluent churn over a weir into filthy green froth and flow through West End Park, hiding the river beneath it. He imagines the polluted mixture entering the oil-fouled River Clyde, then turns toward the fountain, whose rising and falling jets bring some freshness to the air. The scene places a small public amenity against the much larger environmental damage surrounding it: the water offers momentary relief, not a remedy for the polluted city.

A Reunion at the Fountain

At the fountain, well-dressed people and children parade around the jets while McCandless, uncomfortably among the crowd, tries to remember Bella’s eyes. Instead, he recalls the sound of her words, including her question, “Candle, where are your cord dew roys?” Bella appears beside Godwin, dressed in crimson silk and sky-blue velvet, with a purple toque, white gloves, and a bright parasol. The vividness of her appearance contrasts with Godwin’s alarming condition. Wrapped in his heavy outdoor clothes, he looks to McCandless as if something essential is missing from him; his settled gloom seems to threaten his life. Bella holds out her hand to McCandless, and he rises on tiptoe to kiss her fingers.

The fountain remains the meeting place when Bella and McCandless return to Godwin. As park-keepers whistle before locking the gates and the sun sinks behind purple and golden clouds, Godwin sits alone, clasping the knob of his stick with his chin resting on his hands. He seems not to see the couple standing arm in arm before him. Bella breaks the stillness with a playful greeting and asks whether he feels better. Godwin manages to answer that he feels a little better, making the encounter a small, fragile movement away from his isolation.

Courtship and Recurrence

The fountain also enters McCandless’s courtship as the setting named at the close of one of the spontaneous verses he posts to Bella: “As by the Memorial Fountain.” The poems grow increasingly insistent in their requests for a reply. The location thus recurs in two different registers: as an actual public place where the characters meet, and as an image McCandless uses to frame his longing for Bella. Against the industrial filth of the nearby river, the fountain offers a comparatively fresh and orderly public scene; against the emotional distance between the characters, it becomes a familiar point of return.