THE FORE- COURT WALL : HAfn HOU5E 



Italian in- 

 spiration. 



A survey of 

 the past. 



CHAPTER VIII 



ITALIAN VILLA GARDENS 



ROM the time of the Renaissance, 

 Italy has been the fountain-head of 

 inspiration for garden-lovers. Its 

 climate is especially adapted to 

 horticulture, its soil is a mine 

 of garden ornaments, and it has 

 maintained the traditions of the finest gardens of 

 antiquity. For their design and ornamentation, the 

 statuary, fountains, and pavilions of Italian gardens are 

 unsurpassed. Their fame has been noted in England 

 since the seventeenth century, and reproductions of 

 all their phases have been abundant. 



A rapid survey of gardens as they exist or have existed 

 in Italy will help us to understand these reproductions. 

 In describing them no mention will be made of the col- 

 lections of botanical specimens and of strange animals 

 which were initiated by the scientists early in the Renais- 

 sance, for these collections, though interesting as the 



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