European and Japanese Gardens 



It is manifest that any attempt at a detailed reproduc- 

 tion in this country of the exact dispositions of any given ItaHan 

 villa would be pedantic and irrational, if not absurd, because of 

 wide divergences of condition, climate, life and environment. 

 But it is not irrational to study the principles and methods of 

 this highly developed art, and to adapt to our own con- 

 ditions such of those principles and methods as lend them- 





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ORTI FARNESIANI IFARNESE GARDENSI ROME 



I Demolished I — Section and Perspective 



selves readily and artistically to those conditions. One or 

 two cautions are, however, necessary. One should never 

 forget, for instance, that many elements in the present aspect 

 of these gardens are adventitious and wholly unforeseen in the 

 original design, and that such as are due to the action of time 

 and weather cannot be imitated or reproduced. Trees persist 

 in growing, so do hedges. Masonry persists in crumbling ; 



