Book I. 



GARDENING IN ITALY. 



21 



of smooth or stagnant water resting on a slope ; or of a fountain which had suddenly burst forth and 

 threatened to inundate the plain ; but for this idea the course of the water is too tame, tranquil, and regu- 

 lar, and it looks more like some artificial imitation of water than water itself. In short the effect is still 

 more unnatural than it is extraordinary ; for though jets and fountains are also unnatural, yet they pre- 

 sent nothing repugnant to our ideas of the nature of things ; but a body of water seemingly reposing on a 

 slope, and accommodating itself to the inclination of the surface, is a sight at variance with the laws of 

 gravity. Unquestionably the cascade at the extremity is a grand object of itself; but the other cascades 

 are so trifling, and so numerous, as in perspective, and viewed at a distance, to produce this strange effect 

 of continuity of surface. As a proof that our opinion is correct we refer to the views of Caserta, which are 

 got up by the Neapolitan artists for sale ; had these artists been able to avoid the appearance* in question, 

 even by some departures from truth, there can be no doubt they would not have hesitated to do so. A 

 bird's-eye view of this canal, in Vanvitelli's work {fig. 5.), gives but a very imperfect idea of the reality, as 

 seen from the surface of the ground, and especially from the palace and lower parta of the park. 



Forsyth seems to have paid little attention to this water, having been chiefly struck with the palace. 

 Eustace says, " The palace is one of the noblest edifices of the kind in Europe ; the gardens extensive, re- 

 gular, but except a part in the English style, uninteresting. From a reservoir on the mountain Gaezano, 

 the water is precipitated down the declivity to the plain, where, collected in a long straight canal, it loses 

 its rapidity and beauty, and assumes the appearance of an old fashioned stagnant pool." (Tour in Italy, 

 vol. i. p. 602.) Wilson says, the cascade of Caserta might have been made the finest of its kind in the 

 world ; but it has been spoiled by a love of formality, which has led the copious stream drizzling over regu- 

 lar gradations of steps into a long stagnant canal. (Tours, &c. vol. ii. p. 217.) 



The English garden of Caserta was formed by Grajffer, a German, author of a Catalogue of Herba- 

 ceous Plants, who had been some time in England. He was sent to the king of Naples about 1760, by 

 Sir Joseph Banks, and has formed and preserved as perfect a specimen of English pleasure-ground as any 

 we have seen on the continent. The verdure of the turf is maintained in summer by a partially concealed 

 system of irrigation ; and part of the walks were originally laid with Kensington gravel. Every exotic, 

 which at that time could be furnished by the Hammersmith nursery, was planted, and many of them form 

 now very fine specimens. Among these the Camellias, Banksias, Proteas, Magnolias, Pines, &c. have attained 

 a large size, and ripen their seeds. There is a good kitchen and botanic garden, and extensive hot-houses, 

 chiefly in the English form ; but now much out of repair. Indeed this remark will apply to the whole 

 place, excepting the palace. Graeffer laid out the gardens of the Duke de San Gallo, at Naples, and various 

 others. He was not liked by the peasants of St. Lucio, who, taking the advantage of him, when thrown 

 from a cabriolet, stabbed him mortally before he could recover himself, in 1816. 



88. In Sicily are some gardens of great extent. A few are mentioned by Swinburne ; 

 and an account of one belonging to a Sicilian prince, remarkable for its collection of 

 monsters, is given in Brydone's Tour. 



Subsect. 2. Italian Gardening in respect to the Culture of Flowers and Plants of 



Ornament, 



89. Flowers appear to have been little cultivated by the Italians previously to the 10th 

 century. The introduction of the Christian religion as a national worship, though at 

 present favorable, was at first adverse to the use of flowers. Tertullian and Clement of 

 Alexandria, in the second century, inveighed against their use with all their eloquence : 

 and the rites of religion, then carried on in gloomy vaults, were not, as now, accom- 

 panied by bands of music, statues, pictures, and enriched altars decorated with flowers. 

 P. de Crescent in the beginning of the fourteenth century, mentions only the violet, lily, 

 rose, gilly-flower, and iris. Commerce began to flourish in the century which succeeded, 

 and various plants were introduced from the Eastern countries, by the wealthy of Venice 

 and Genoa. 



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