318 T>r. Falconer on the Style and Tafte 
of a Roman nobleman, and fenator, feventeen 
hundred years ago. 
Some circumflances, in the above defcription, 
appear in many refpe&s, abfurd and excep¬ 
tionable. But let us not be too hafly in our 
cenfures: but confider, whether the nature of 
the climate and country may not vindicate 
them, in feveral refpefts, from the imputations 
which might have been juflly afcribed to them, 
under different circumflances. The walks, bor¬ 
dered with box, a tree of clofe growth, and 
faid to flourifh extremely in that fituation, 
formed a convenient fhelter from the torrid rays 
of an Italian fun. The fhearing of the trees, 
contributed alfo to thicken their fhade, and to 
render them more commodious for this purpofe ; 
though, I confefs, it was not necefifary, for this 
end, that they fhould be clipped into awkward 
imitations of animals, &c. which, it is furpriziog 
a man of the tafle of Pliny could approve. The 
fence to the garden was, in Pliny’s Villa, con¬ 
cealed by trees, an improvement on the modern 
tafle referred to ; a long range of bare brick 
walling having been often efleemed an object 
of beauty or magnificence. 
Fountains, likewife, and jets d’eau, however 
ufelefs, and therefore abfurd and unnatural, in 
Great Britain and Holland, may dill be iti per¬ 
fectly good tafle in Italy. The difperfion of 
moiflure cools the air, by the evaporation it pro¬ 
duces j 
