It was one of Edinburgh's most unusual-looking monuments, serving as a thirst-quenching token of gratitude to the hundreds of horses that kept the city on the move.
In the 19th century, the capital was almost wholly reliant on the power of horses.
Our famously loyal four-legged friends were responsible for the somewhat thankless task of hauling carts, carriages and even early trams and omnibuses.
Keen to recognise the efforts of Edinburgh's unsung, hoofed heroes, it was decided that a public fountain be created as gesture of goodwill between man and beast.
Named after novelist and philanthropist Catherine Sinclair, who paid for its inception, the Sinclair Fountain was unveiled in 1859, providing much-needed refreshment for the city's equine workforce, while also catering for people and dogs.
Standing 15-feet-tall, the oddly-shaped stone fountain was erected at the busy west end junction of Princes Street and inscribed with the following messages: "Water is not for man alone; A blessing on the giver; Drink and be thankful".
As the first of its kind in the city, the fountain was most gratefully received by local cabmen, who had previously been forced to resort to "begging a pail from the nearest public house every time they were required to give their horses water".
Reading newspaper reports from the time, it's evident that there was much opposition to the fountain and its location near the cabstand at the already bustling intersection of Princes Street and Lothian Road, with many voices arguing it should be moved elsewhere or taken away altogether.
Responding to criticism of the fountain, one anonymous local, calling themselves 'A lover and admirer of the brute creation', penned an impassioned plea in the North Briton newspaper.
They wrote: "Of all the drinking fountains lately erected in this city, there is none which has proved a greater boon to the working classes than the Sinclair Fountain.
"It is certainly more pleasant to witness cabmen, vanmen and carters crowding around the Sinclair Fountain, supplying their horses with water free and independently, than to see them, as many often are, under the necessity of begging and being obliged to publicans, etc, for a pail of water for their thirsty horses.
"If the thoroughfare is at times overcrowded with visitors at the Sinclair Fountain, this at once proves its usefulness.
"It would certainly be a disgrace to the city of Edinburgh, if, for the sake of a few dissatisfied individuals, the Sinclair fountain was hurled from its foundation, and cast to the moles and the bats."
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As it turned out, the Sinclair Fountain had staying power. The civic landmark would survive beyond the end of the First World War and into the Roaring Twenties.
Brought on by the arrival of the motorcar, and the subsequent increase of traffic in the city centre, its eventual removal was decided at a Tramway Sub-committee meeting, held in December 1925. It vanished from Princes Street the following year.
Created for the benefit of the traditional mode of transport of its day, the Sinclair Fountain had disappeared to make way for the advent of a brand new means of getting around.
In the years that followed, the famous fountain was sadly split into several pieces and kept in storage for decades.
Then, in 1983, part of the main body of the historic structure was reused near the Water of Leith walkway at Gosford Place off Ferry Road.
While it has suffered from occasional vandalism the little stone plinth acts continues to remind us of the days when the horse - not the car - was king in Edinburgh.
