HOURS IN OTHER GARDENS 



first, however, providing a supply for the master's use. In addition to 

 money they bring a relic perhaps of the old payment in kind two 

 mountain cheeses, bound up in green-leaved boughs, one of fresh, hard, 

 creamy curd that is generally eaten with sugar, the other smoked 

 and seasoned. I would not disturb their tenancy, and the children 

 of those days now carry on the trade their father is no longer fit for. 

 . . . The Feast of the Redentore is the mulberry sacrifice or triumph. 

 It is held on the third Saturday and following Sunday of July. . . . 

 On the Saturday, the eve of the Redentore festa, all Venice, poor 

 and rich, gentle and simple, spend their night abroad. From dark 

 to dawn the Giudecca quays, called Fondamente, are crowded with 

 sightseers and pleasure wooers of every age and size and sex. Among 

 them the Furlani have a ready sale for their fruit. For there are 

 few on bank or boat who do not eat that night of mulberries. 



To the present-day visitor alighting from the gondola 

 beside a graceful bridge, where a green gate opens in 

 a wall smothered with creepers and overhung with 

 tamarask, the effect is delightfully wild. The lodge, 

 a remnant of monastic reign, has disappeared beneath 

 a tangle of rose and wistaria, a dome-like pink May 

 dominates the cortile and in the midst of the garden 

 four cypresses straight and strong, towering above a 

 mass of greenery, beckon the nature-lover on from 

 one beauty to another. 



For this estate is really a series of small gardens 



313 



