THE VATICA^ (;. \RDE\S, ROME. 



27 



blue and white anemones and rosy cyclamen and bluebells, and the blackbirds and nightingales 

 are singing in the undergrowth. 



At the top of the wood the ground opens out, and upon the crest of the hill is a small villa 

 with plainly furnished rooms and a little chapel, built as a summer residence for Leo XIII. 

 The long wall here, with the Saracenic tower, was that held by the Roman volunteers who fought 

 so well against the French in 1(849. The sculptor W. W. Story speaks of his visit during the 

 defence. " As we looked from the wall on this the third day after the battle, we saw the monks 

 under the black flag looking for the unburied dead who had fallen in the ditches or among the 

 hedges. The French had retreated without an effort to bury their dead, and a living, wounded 

 man was found on this third day with the bodies of two dead soldiers lying across him." A 

 little below this we come to a tiny summer-house, in which is a gilt chair where His Holiness 



37. BRONZE FIR CONE: AN OLD ROMAN FOUNTAIN IN BRAMANTE S HEMICYCLE ENDING THE 



BELVEDERE COURT. 



may rest after the climb up-hill. A shady pergola of vines stretches in front of it, under which 

 the light is golden green on the hottest summer day, and this is a favourite promenade of the 

 present, as it was of the late, Pope. Not far off is Pope Leo's little writing house, in which he 

 used often to transact business with his secretary. During the great heat Leo XIII often went 

 up to the garden at nine in the morning, after saying Mass, and spent the whole day in the 

 garden, receiving everyone there, dining in the garden pavilion, guarded by the Swiss, to whom 

 he generally sent a measure of good wine, and in the cool of the day he would take a drive, and 

 not return to the Vatican till after sunset. The road passes near his little summer-house, and 

 it was at this point that on his last drive the aged pontiff stopped the carriage and, raising 

 himself, looked long over the Eternal City lying below him, with the Alban Hills rising far 



(i) Grass I .awn. 

 t<) I'oml. 



(3) l." 



(4) Stairways to upper level. 



(5) Landings and entrance to ditch. 



(6) Entrance porches to 



(7)' Oval court paved with mosaic. 



(8) Vestibule with marble columns. 



(9) Salon. 



(10) Small salon. 



(See plan on page 26.) 



(n) Cabinet. 



(12) Staircase to first lloor and belvedere. 



(13) Dry ditches to isolate from planta- 



tions. 



