LTHOUGH this was once one of the most 

 magnificent gardens of Rome, there is 

 very little there at present to suggest this. 

 The interest that one finds is rather in the study of 

 the ancient place than in the beauty of the existing 

 landscape architecture. 



The villa has been through a period of great ruin, 

 and the style of gardening in vogue at the time of 

 its partial restoration was quite the opposite of that 

 upon which it was originally designed. The result 

 has been to give its general appearance one without 

 character as a complete work of art, the contrast be- 

 tween the formal and the so-called neutral methods 

 filling one with a sense of lost opportunity. The 

 main features of the old work were of such magnitude 

 as to be ever before the eye, showing what might have 

 been or what has been. The more recent work has 

 been chiefly an attempt to conceal this, or to cover 

 the evidences of its ruin. Although the effect of 



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