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VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



brageous, with which to adorn the garden of his Tuscan 

 villa. 



" In front of my house/' said he, " lies a spacious hip- 

 podrome, or open space, encompassed on every side with 

 plane-trees, entwined by ivy, which, spreading from one 

 tree to another, forms a chain of verdure, and gracefully 

 festoons the trunks and branches. Between each of these 

 are placed box- trees, and behind them are bay-trees, which 

 blend their shade with that of planes. This plantation, 

 forming a straight boundary on both sides of the hippo- 

 drome, bends at the further end into a semicircle, set 

 round and sheltered with cypresses that cast a deeper and 

 more solemn shade; while numerous walks or winding 

 alleys, lying open to the sun, are full of roses. Having 

 passed through them, you enter a straight walk, breaking 

 out into a variety of others, that are divided by box hedges. 

 At one point a little meadow lies before you in its green- 

 ness ; at another you come upon a company of box-trees, 

 cut into a thousand different forms, sometimes into letters, 



