Coryat has a passage about the wells which shows how much more animated a scene the ducal courtyard used to present than now.

"They yeeld very pleasant water," he writes.

"For I tasted it.

For which cause it is so much frequented in the Sommer time that a man can hardly come thither at any time in the afternoone, if the sunne shineth very hote, but he shall finde some company drawing of water to drinke for the cooling of themselves." To-day they give water no more, nor do the pigeons come much to the little drinking place in the pavement here but go rather to that larger one opposite Cook's office.
Everything that an architect can need to know--and more--may be learned in this courtyard, which would be yet more wonderful if it had not its two brick walls.

Many styles meet and mingle here: Gothic and Renaissance, stately and fanciful, sombre and gay.