Introduction 



and none except in the neighbourhood of towns. 

 It was not till the seventeenth century that villas 

 and palace gardens were constructed near Naples 

 and Palermo. The disturbed state of the country 

 rendered it unsafe to live elsewhere than in a city 

 or a castle. One exception there was, but it com- 

 bined the charm of the country villa with the 

 security of a fortress. This is the Farnese Palace 

 at Caprarola, which is in a wild district a consider- 

 able distance from Rome. 



The old gardens of Italy owe much of their 

 charm to their entire suitability to the house, its 

 occupants, and the climate. To transport their 

 schemes bodily to America or England must always 

 be a mistake, for it is not the garden itself, but the 

 lessons that its designers have taught for all time, 

 that one should carry home. At the best period of 

 Italian garden architecture, that of Vignola, we see 

 how carefully the plan was thought out in all its 

 details, and how house and garden were treated as 

 one. The term " villa " in Italy always means the 

 whole property, the "casino" being the house. 

 The symmetrical lines of the clipped hedges and 

 the straight paths near the dwelling carried on the 

 idea of walls, and when the distance from the house 

 was sufficiently great the formal gave place to the 

 wild, and a shady wood or bosco filled in the 

 allotted space till the boundary was reached. The 

 scenery of the district was worked into the scheme 

 by means of high terraces commanding beautiful 

 views, or openings in the walls of verdure. An 

 old garden was often by no means large, but it 



