

tbe Mounter 55 



dining-room where there are no windows runs 

 a private staircase for greater convenience in 

 serving up when I give an entertainment ; at 

 the farther end is a sleeping-room with a look- 

 out upon the vineyards, and (what is equally 

 agreeable) the portico. Underneath this room 

 is an enclosed portico resembling a grotto, 

 which, enjoying in the midst of summer heats 

 its own natural coolness, neither admits nor 

 wants external air. After you have passed 

 both these porticos, at the end of the dining- 

 room stands a third, which, according as the 

 day is more or less advanced, serves either for 

 winter or summer use. It leads to two different 

 apartments, one containing four chambers, the 

 other, three, which enjoy by turns both sun 

 and shade. This arrangement of the different 

 parts of my house is exceedingly pleasant, 

 though it is not to be compared with the beauty 

 of the hippodrome, lying entirely open in the 

 middle of the grounds, so that the eye, upon 

 your first entrance, takes it in entire in one 

 view. It is set round with plane-trees covered 

 with ivy, so that, while their tops flourish with 

 their own green, towards the roots their verdure 

 is borrowed from the ivy that twines round the 

 trunk and branches, spreads from tree to tree, 

 and connects them together. Between each 

 plane-tree are planted box-trees, and behind 



