146 THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



ascending in a cardinal's coach. A lattice basket of wood set over an axle and two wheels, 

 with a sturdy pony and a portly Roman as driver, contrived the ascent to the Aldobrandini with 

 some tremors for the passenger. The diagonal gutters shown on Percier and Fontaine's plan 

 are extraordinary obstacles that one would imagine must have been fatal to any more solid 

 conveyance. The water rushing down the slopes plays havoc with the volcanic subsoil, and 

 these gutters are essential to prevent the deep and quaggy ruts which would otherwise cut these 

 hill roads into ribbons. 



At Tusculum and at Marino are quarries of the tufa, or peperino stone, which forms such an 

 element in this villa architecture. It varies from golden yellow to a brown which is almost chocolate ; 

 the darker colour, no doubt, results from the material being wet. This masonry is largely and effec- 

 tively used at Mondragone. Open in texture and incapable of small detail, it is admirably adapted 

 to the scale of these villas. It is sparingly employed, because the main walling is a local bluish rock, 

 used as rubble, sometimes brick banded, but all covered with plaster and cream wash. Some of 

 the villa buildings, like the Falconieri, have the appearance of being entirely in plaster, but the 

 grand gateway illustrated is a fine piece of solid masonry. Bricks have always been made of the 

 local volcanic soil, and are of a very good red in colour. The Falconieri rooms are paved in 

 brick with marble bands. The peperino stone lends itself admirably to the rough rustics and to the 

 vigorous design of the carvings employed, as in the dragon spandrels of Mondragone. A. T. B. 



Tusculum of old for long centuries looked down upon Rome, for Rome was the most 

 recent rather than the most ancient among the Latin cities. This 



Fatica di gloria e di sventure, 



Terra Latina 

 (This Latin land, 

 Tired out with glory and misfortune) 



goes back so far that its origin is lost in fabulous legends. It was said to have been founded 

 by Telegonus, the son of Ulysses and Circe, and Mauritius, Prince of Tusculum, claimed to be 

 descended from them. It is strange indeed, as one wanders up the lonely paths and slopes that 

 lie behind Frascati, to think that all over this wild ground, where the goats crop and the gorse 

 and wild thyme scent the air, rose 



The white streets of Tusculum, 

 The proudest town of all. 



A great, well ordered city with its own laws and civil dignitaries, and all around it a rich and 

 cultivated countryside, with vines and olives, corn lands and pasture. On the neighbouring 

 hills the white walls of other cities glimmered in the sunshine, Palestrina, Prasneste, the ancient 

 towns of Gabii and Labicum, and, on the shores of the Alban lake, that Alba Longa from which, 

 five hundred years after the founding of Tusculum, a little band of outlaws was to descend into 

 the plain, and there, where a hill rose beside the river, was to found Roma Immortalis. 



Tusculum saw Rome rise gradually to greatness. It intermarried, made treaties and 

 fought with her in the wide plain below. It was probably over by Monte Porzio, in a 

 depression that looks like an extinct crater, that Lake Regillus lay, where that battle was fought 

 when out of forty thousand Latins only ten thousand came home, when Rome was only saved 

 by her cavalry, and her generals voted a Temple to the Great Twin Brethren, whom, in the 

 moment when all seemed lost, men had seen riding in their van. 



When, in the decline of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, men began to enjoy leisure 

 they had the wish to escape from the bustle of towns, and peace reigning between Rome and 

 prosperous Tusculum, the delightful slopes which lay below that city were singled out and 

 villas rose in every part and of every description, from the smallest to the most sumptuous. The 

 countryside was white with them ; the names of great numbers have been recovered, and the sites 

 of many determined. There was the villa of the Octavii, where Villa Aldobrandini now stands ; 

 Cato's was at Monte Porzio, that of Pliny the younger at Centrone. The Javoleni built 

 where the ruins of Borghetto now stand, Cicero's stately school and halls stretched away to 

 Grotta Ferrata, and on the site of Villa Torlonia glowed the gardens of Lucullus, most famous 

 of all. Archaeologists believe that the ancient villas were laid out on much the same plan as 

 those of a later time with a succession of terraces and marble balustrades, and arranged so 



