The Italian Formal Garden 



design, were and are still so beautiful that they have never 

 ceased to excite the admiration of every visitor. They were 

 designed by masters, men of taste and culture, filled with the 

 sense of beauty, who wrought in harmony with their environ- 

 ment and with the beauties of the prospect and atmosphere 

 about them. However questionable the taste of certain deco- 

 rative details, their general decorative effect is almost always 



Casino, Villa Bopghese 



THE CENTRAL FEATURE IS THE HOUSE OR CASINO' 



excellent and in harmony with the fanciful and wayward beauty 

 of the gardens. At least this is true of the gardens as they ap- 

 pear to-day, the crumbling stuccoes and the masonry stained by 

 weather, tinged orange and green by lichens and mosses, over- 

 run with ivy and creeping roses, and contrasting richly with 

 the dark green of the stone pines behind and the ilex and 

 box in front. Their charm is not wholly of atmosphere and 

 color and rampant vegetation, nor merely the romantic half- 

 melancholy of their silent walks, their grass-grown terraces, 

 their whispering pines, and gentle decay. They possess a posi- 

 tive artistic beauty in the proportion and balance which control 



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