Footnote 8 Her bequest to Leicester and the civic engagement that it embodies reflected the cultural and philanthropic climate Footnote 9 that framed her existence, also characterized by her appreciation of the role of art in society.
The choice of Edith Gittins, firmly placed in the contemporary cultural tradition that identified the roots of the English people in the Anglo-Saxon period, brought together a number of needs that were increasingly important in the Victorian era with the rise of industrialization Footnote 6 and the demand for recognition of the role of women in the public sphere, Footnote 7 which radical Unitarians, such as Edith, had been advocating for some time.
The statuette Footnote 5 that surmounted it was intended also to celebrate the historic roots of Leicester, and in particular the period of Anglo-Saxon rule. The purpose of the Leicester fountain was not solely to provide an indispensable resource. However, connections can be made with other cities in the United Kingdom, not just because numerous instances are to be found of charitable works promoted by women philanthropists in the late Victorian and Edwardian era, Footnote 3 but also because the bequest for a public fountain in Leicester was one of a series of initiatives at national level taken by philanthropic movements spanning half a century for the construction of public drinking fountains, especially for the less privileged members of society. Footnote 2 The urban setting that was intended to be the site of the monument was Leicester, where Edith Gittins, artist and drawing teacher, had been born and spent her entire life. This case of female patronage, providing for the statuette and fountain to be erected in a central space (High Street) has implications both for women's rights Footnote 1 and for the use of the past for the construction of civic identity. This fountain, a bequest from Miss Edith Gittins to Leicester, however, was not erected in High Street where she had originally intended, a location that would have enabled it to perform a more complex and political role than in Victoria Park. On 3 August 1922, the citizens of Leicester crowded into Victoria Park for the unveiling of the ‘Ethelfloeda Fountain’, a drinking fountain surmounted by a statuette dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon Lady of the Mercians who had ruled a thousand years earlier.
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