78 Villas. 



VILLAS, DEMESNES. 



What villas are, as distinct from what are com- 

 monly called demesnes, might puzzle us accurately 

 to define ; but near to most of our great cities and 

 towns there are houses and grounds which are gene- 

 rally recognised as villas. The Eomans, in their 

 most cultivated times, had three kinds the TJr- 

 bana, Eustica, and the Fructuaria ; but three times 

 three would not count the varieties of our villas, be- 

 sides those of other countries on the Continent of 

 Europe and elsewhere. We could name hundreds 

 of such near Dublin, London, Edinburgh, and other 

 towns, each with something of special interest ; and 

 though there be much variety amongst them, each 

 would be considered deficient without a conservatory 

 and garden, and more or less dress-ground, with 

 ornamental exotics of some kind ; and nowhere does 

 the advancing taste of the middle and lower ranks of 

 the community in such matters seem more apparent 

 than in these suburban residences. Though exotic 

 shrubs at Villa Carlotta, on Lake Como, and the 

 collections at the islands in Lake Maggiore, and at 

 Villa Ada on its northern shore, and some in other 

 parts of Italy, are very interesting, the move in this 

 kind of ornamental planting seems as yet but partial 

 in that country of classic villas. Still the most popu- 

 lar guide-books to Italy and to other parts of the 

 Continent seem not to consider their villa grounds 

 as worthy of particular observation. The principal 



