THE VILLA M()\ I)R.K;()\K AND I'll. LA K()R(;iIKM, I'RASCATI. 185 



Cardinal Marco d'Altemps in honour of Gregory XIII, and called after the dragon which 

 was the Pope's crest. At Este another cardinal was causing a dragon fountain to burst out, 

 to gratify the Pope, and a cardinal of Frascati must not be outdone. They had grand ideas 

 of making gifts in those days, for the Villa Borghese, which lies at the foot of the Mon Dragone 

 grounds was given to Paul V by its owner, Count Ferdinand Taverna, Governor of Rome. 



The Pontiff intended to 

 throw the two villas into 

 one, and proposed to 

 make a new road leading 

 straight from St. John 

 Lateran to the door, and 

 so lightly did they 

 reckon of vast under- 

 takings that we are left 

 with a feeling of surprise 

 that these modest pro- 

 jects were actually 

 abandoned. 



The glories of Mon 

 Dragone have passed 

 away. It was laid waste 

 in 1821 by the army of 

 the Austrian occupation 

 when marching towards 

 Naples. The beautiful 

 English princess 

 Gwendoline Borghese 

 had made plans for its 

 restoration, but her 

 sudden death put a stop 

 to them. The huge old 

 house is now a religious 

 college, the principal of 

 which shows the kindest 

 hospitality in allowing 

 sightseers and artists to 

 wander over the grounds. 

 The picturesque 

 gateway illustrated here 

 (Fig. 191) is in the garden 

 of the Villa Borghese at 

 Frascati. The villa lies 

 immediately below Mon 

 Dragone, and is the one 

 which Ferdinando 

 Taverna, Governor of 

 Rome, presented to 

 Paul V. It was built for 

 Cardinal Borghese by the Roman architect Girolamo Rainaldi, and a grand avenue of cypresses 

 led from it to Mon Dragone. It has passed into the possession of a family named Parisi, who 

 now call it by their name. 



One of the comparatively little visited villas is that belonging to the Barberini family at 

 Castel Gandolfo, the grounds of which take up the whole side of the hill reaching to Albano. 

 The villa garden is full of vestiges of antiquity, and is an example of the way in which the 



GATEWAY OF THE VILLA BORGHESE, FRASCATI. 



