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The Country House 



Roman ruins as then existed, borne out by descriptions of them by Cicero and 

 Pliny, formed the basis of design for the Italian garden. The main fact which at 

 once strikes the beholder is that it is an architectural effort in which even Nature 

 herself has been conventionalised, to the end that both garden and villa should be 

 one complete and harmonious architectural composition. In this scheme it was 

 only natural that the trees should be trimmed and clipped into forms more or 

 less antagonistic to their natural growth. Of course Nature has in a measure 

 reclaimed her own, and it is now difficult to determine conclusively just to what 

 extent this conventionalising extended. It is safe to say, however, that, in our 

 eyes at least, the existing suggestions are preferable to the original lines. 



As to the architectural embellishment of the garden, it is natural that the 

 antique sculpture of the Roman garden should find its way into it, but the 

 Italian, being a collector, often overcrowded his garden with much that really had 

 no place there, thereby making of it a veritable museum. Such antiques, being in 

 reality a part of the history of the country itself, had a more or less natural refuge 

 in the villa garden, while the appropriateness of such plunder is often questionable 

 in the American garden. 



Properly speaking, flowers are not a feature of the Italian garden. The old 

 monastic examples grew only such as could be used for practical purposes. In 

 them flourished such flowers and herbs as had medicinal properties, and some 



specimens of the former that could be used in the 

 festivals of the Church. On such lines as these 

 vegetables were naturally cultivated. 



The main features of the Italian garden are 

 its sloping site, in which three, rather than two 

 or four, terraces are used, the architectural 

 treatment of the emphatic points of the design, 

 the use of running water both in cascades and 

 fountains upon each distinct level of the motive, 

 and the formal treatment of such flower beds, 

 hedges and avenues as are deemed necessary to 

 the proper setting of architectural motives. Each 

 terrace is faced by a stone retaining wall, capped 

 by a balustrade and connected by broad stair- 

 ways. The garden is enclosed, and is usually of 

 about 10 acres, in which its length is two or 

 three times its breadth. The long axis follows 

 the slope of the hill on which it is situated. 

 The entrance is through the wall at the lower 

 level, in which is the flower garden. On the 

 middle level is the most important and central 

 feature of the garden design the house, or casino 

 with its architectural accessories. Above this, 

 the third level, is the more naturalistic treatment of trees, which serves as a back- 

 ground for the central architectural feature as seen from below. 



This briefly is the typical Italian garden, architectural in its treatment and 



An Ivy-covered sione bridge 



A rough stone bridge supporting a drive 



