Susan Stewart,  « Garden Agon : Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Little Sparta 1993-97 », The Open Studio, Essays on Art and Aesthetics, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2005, p. 125.

A shell inscribed  « goddess » and « caddis » hides a hose that animates the water at Temple Pond. The shell commemorates both the birth of Aphrodite and the shell of the larva of the caddis fly who lives in the pond. The caddis shell is composed of tiny pieces of stone and grit and seems to glisten like gold in the water. Carp within and moddels of submarines around the Temple Pool remind the viewer that both are bottom feeders.