CAPO DI MONTE, NAPLES 



paradise on earth with its uncomprehended, 

 ineffaceable, ubiquitous charm ? 



The Archduke Maximilian afterwards Em- 

 peror of Mexico in his memoirs gives an 

 interesting account of his visit in 1851 to his 

 aunt, the Princess of Salerno at Capo di Monte. 

 He speaks of the garden plots, originally laid 

 out by an English landscape gardener, where 

 the grass was hopelessly burned up ; but the 

 palms and oleanders, the long straight, high- 

 arched avenues of heavy green, the arrangement 

 partly artificial, partly irregular and wild, pleased 

 his northern eyes. Being something of a natu- 

 ralist he was interested in the abundant life, the 

 wild hares which crossed his path, the carefully 

 preserved pheasants ; nearer the house the pea- 

 cocks and tropical birds, the deer shut up sorrow- 

 fully in a small enclosure. Within he found 

 huge state rooms (now used as a museum) with 

 portico-like doors and windows in red frames, 

 what he calls brick floors, and scanty furniture. 

 He belonged to the Romantics and consequently 

 found the Empire style of these desolate apart- 

 ments, the long straight lines and conventional 

 ornaments, " as destitute of taste as of comfort, 

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