NOTES ON DECORATIVE GARDENING. 



" A pillared shade 

 With echoing- walks beneath." 



The peculiar character of the tufted heads of the Stone Pines, too, grouping in picturesque 

 masses Avith terraces, statues, and fountains, tend to invest Roman villas with a charm 

 peculiarly their own. 



To return to the subject of our engraving, the villa Panfili Doria is next in importance 

 to that of the Borghesi, among the villas near Rome; but its somewhat greater distance, 

 and unhealthy situation, cause it to be much less frequented. The palace itself is, on its 

 exterior, almost entirely encrusted with antique alto-relievi, some of which are of the 

 highest merit, and most exquisite beauty. This is a luxury which cannot be imitated ex- 

 cept in Italy, where the soil still teems with the fragments of her ancient splendor, many 

 of the finest of these relievi having been turned up in digging the foundation of the build- 

 ing. The whole of the composition of this palace and gardens — for the whole forms one 

 harmonious design — is an excellent model for the careful examination of the modern stu- 

 dent, but the reduced dimensions of our engraving, can convey but a very inadequate idea 

 of the numerous and elaborate details. 



I find the following brief notices of one or two other villas in my journal, with which 

 I shall conclude this article, which, though not strictly of a practical character, is yet, I 

 think, calculated to convey my opinion of the styles to be adopted in the higher class of 

 terraces, better than more mechanical definition. 



TEH VILLA PANFILI DORIA. 



The villa Albani, perhaps, realises more than any other the dreams of the Italian villa, 

 that haunt the imagination before having seen Italy. It is chaste, and severely classic in 

 its style, yet, withal, richly magnificent, a rare and difficult combination. And to its in- 

 trinsic features, the charms of position are superadded, the range of views from its mar 

 ble terraces commanding the finest portions of the picturesque campagna, with its ru 

 lines of half crumbling acqueducts, and scattered groups of detached ruins. 



