312 Dr. Falconer on the Style and Fajle 
* • 
His account of his Laurentine Villa,* relates 
but little to the external arrangement of gardens 
and ground, but is confined chiefly to the houfe. 
It appears, however, that the Geftatio,d - or place 
for horfe exercife, was bordered with box, and 
where that was defective, with rofemary inter¬ 
twined with vines. It appears, alfo, that the 
Geftatio furrounded the garden.J The Xyftus jj 
likewife, or place for foot exercife, was planted 
with violets, which feem to have been placed 
there, on account of their odour. His defcrip- 
tion of his Tufcan Villa** is more particular. 
This feems to have poflTeflfed great natural 
beauties, to which its pofleflfor attended with 
great judgment. Its fituation appears to have 
been healthy, and remarkably cool ; infomuch, 
that the olive and the myrtle would not 
thrive, nor perhaps, even grow there. This 
* The Laurentine Villa, we are told by Pliny himfelf, 
was calculated more for ufe than ornament. “ Villa 
ufibus capax, non fumptuofa tuteia.” 
Plin. Epift. L. II. Ep. 17. 
-}- Geftatio buxo aut rore marino ube deficit, buxus ambi- 
tur. Adjacet geftatione interiore circuitu vinea tenera et 
umbrofa. Ibidem Plinii* 
J Hortum et geftationem videt qua hortus includitur. 
Ibidem Plinii. 
U Ante Cryptoporticum Xyftus violis adoratus. Ibidem. 
** See Pliny’s Letter to Apollinaris* 
Lib- V- Epiftol. 6. 
circurn- 
