|HE Villa Albani was made at the end of 

 the eighteenth century, and consequently 

 the architecture is very florid in charac- 

 ter. Though the general plan is a good one, the 

 prominence given to the architecture makes the 

 effect of the whole hard, and particularly so on ac- 

 count of the paucity of the planting. The flower- 

 garden has no flowers in it! or such, at least, is its 

 effect. The garden is so placed being sunk between 

 the house and a pavilion which encloses its end that 

 it is impossible not to look down upon it. This is the 

 usual placing of Italian flower-gardens ; but to look 

 well under these conditions very full planting is abso- 

 lutely necessary. Here one looks down and sees 

 nothing but scroll-work in box, and great varieties of 

 colors in gravel and sand occupying spaces that should 

 be filled with flowers, all the efforts of the gardener 

 going to make a permanent effect and to preserve his 

 design at any cost, the result being the reverse of that 



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