126 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



places they seemed like a forest of marble." There are, in fact, one hundred and forty-four. 

 The noble portico is composed of thirty-six large columns of Oriental granite and forty small 

 ones, beautifully polished. Another writer says that Albani's nobility of soul made him so 

 beloved that he was often given, or helped to find, things that might otherwise have escaped him. 

 Immediately within the entrance we come upon a series of box avenues, all converging towards a 

 circle formed by eleven splendid pines, which stand round a space in the middle of which rises 

 an antique obelisk as the central feature. About it there is a curious story. It belonged to the 

 Prince ot Palestrina, who refused to sell it to the Cardinal at any price. Shortly after the Prince went 

 on a journey, whereupon the Cardinal sent a large body of men, who entered the garden by 

 force, bore off the obelisk, and erected it in the gardens of the Villa Albani. As the Cardinal 

 was excessively powerful in Rome, the Prince did not dare to bring an action against him, but 

 made a joke of the whole affair, complimenting him on his exploit and remaining upon friendly 

 terms with him. It is now surmounted by the mount and star of the Albani family, and stands 



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135. VILLA ALBANI : THE EAST TERRACE. 



out beautifully against a group of cypresses with a further background of deep blue mountains. 

 Close-cut hedges of cypress, set with busts and terminal figures, screen the approach to the 

 great formal garden which lies in front of the villa. The casino opposite is ablaze with masses 

 of azaleas. "It is roses, roses all the way " in the long flower-beds, which are flanked by pots 

 of lemon and orange trees. Noble fountains make a centre here and there. A river god 

 reclines under a portico, for which the original drawing of Marchionni exists in an old book on 

 the table within the house. In one of his letters Winckelmann says : ' ' The Cardinal has brought 

 from Tivoli on a carro drawn by sixteen bullocks a female river deity of colossal size, well pre- 

 served," and here, sure enough, she is, reclining on the edge of a marble reservoir. ' I write 

 from our villa, which grows more beautiful every day," he says ; ' one of the last acquisitions 

 is a colossal head of Trajan, in perfect preservation except the nose." The nose has been 

 restored, and the colossal bust looms from a bower of honeysuckle. The Cardinal has just 

 brought to his villa the few last of the best statues left in the Villa d'Este, at Tivoli." 



