224 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



237. THE CASINO OF CAPRAROLA : THE 



Sebastian!, a garrulous and admiring chronicler who lived in the little town, published a 

 pamphlet on the subject in 1741, the lake in the middle of the lower garden was still filled with 

 fish, and the fountains played without ceasing. In the middle, a huge lily, the crest of the 

 Farnese, formed of lead, sent up a shower of water, which rose with such vehemence that it 

 burst in fine clouds of spray, in which the sunbeams produced a rainbow. 



Against a retaining wall at the back is a spacious grotto worked in stucco, somewhat shabby 

 and decadent nowadays. Its walls are sustained by six sylvan figures of gigantic size ; within 

 sit groups of nymphs, playing on musical instruments. A huge vase spouts water in the centre. 

 The pavement once showed a design of white lilies on a darker ground of marble. This grotto 

 was the favourite private retreat of his Serenissimo, Cardinal Odoardo Farnese, who succeeded 

 Cardinal Alessandro, and lived here the greater part of the year. The garden is still kept up, 

 but in a somewhat perfunctory manner ; roses, however, riot in masses over the walls great 

 splendid blooms of royal crimson, sheets of Fortune's Yellow, huge creamy tea and shell-like 

 pink blossoms effective against the background colour of dark cypress green. 



From the formal garden a wood of plane trees slopes gently up for some distance. On 

 a May morning the ground underneath the tender greenery is carpeted with wild flowers - 

 orchis, iris, saxifrage, cyclamen and Solomon's seal. Through an avenue of Scotch firs we 

 reach the upper pleasure-ground, laid out some seventy years later by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese 

 (the only part of the grounds with which Mr. Latham's photographs deal). Here he has given 

 us the immense fountain basin, with broad stone edge, in which the water is of a deep blue 

 colour, very striking against the rich dark green of the avenue of firs leading up to it. One 

 slender jet of water springs from the Farnese lily in the centre of the basin. Above is the ascent, 

 enclosed in arched and grottoed walls, between which comes an aqueduct formed of the twisted 

 bodies of dolphins down which the water rushes, rippling and swirling in a thousand shell-like 

 waves (Figs. 232 and 233). At the top recline the " Giants " ; two river gods pouring water from 

 stone cornucopia (Fig. 234). Everywhere the silver grey, porous stone is softened with the dainty 

 maidenhair fern and enriched with golden mosses. Perhaps the most beautiful of all 

 Mr. Latham's illustrations are the two which show us the entrance to the heart of the garden, 

 the low flight of four curving steps, flanked on either side by groups of figures (Figs. 236 and 238.) 



