CAPRAROLA. 



225 



SOUTHERN EDGE OF THE PARTERRE. 



This is the garden of the Hermes and Caryatids. On one side stands the Casino or 

 summer-house, a small villa having three storeys to the east and one to the west (Fig. 233) : 

 it contains three or four rooms on each floor, and a gaily frescoed loggia looks out both on 

 the east and west fronts. The peculiar distinction of this garden consists in the twenty-eight 

 giant stone figures which stand round it on three sides. Interspersed with tall cypresses, they 

 have a picturesque stateliness such as can hardly be matched elsewhere. Each one is 

 different, with a beautiful natural variety : some stand in couples, whispering together (Fig. 242) ; 

 a faun blows a conch shell into his companion's ear, who wards off the sound with his hands, 

 another plays Pan's pipes ; one nymph, with her hands thrown up behind her head, seems to 

 lean lazily back in a cypress bower ; others clasp young birds or bunches of grapes ; over all. 

 Time has flung his hoary charm (Fig. 238). They stand out high and erect, and are seen against 

 the melting blue of the far distance. A double stairway, rich in dolphins and sea-beasts, leads 

 to the remains of another garden behind the Casino. Here still stands a slender fountain 

 with a graceful semicircle of fountain gateways (Fig. 245), and from this one passes into the 

 woods again. The upper part of the grounds is left to run wild, except that the box 

 hedges are cut. 



It is impossible adequately to describe the charm of this high poised and lovely garden. It 

 is in extraordinarily good preservation, and this is the more striking, because there is not the 

 slightest sign of any restoration. As the photographs show, the carving of the stonework is as 

 clear and well cut as ever. Look at the detail of the mouldings of the east and west stairways 

 (Figs. 240 and 241), the bold and grotesque dolphins of the cascades. The whole garden has a 

 look of weird melancholy, almost magical in its effect ; and, forlorn as it is, maybe it is yet more 

 beautiful in its solitary silence than it could have been in its first hour of magnificence. 



The west of the garden terminates in the stables, erected for Cardinal Alessandro, from 

 Vignola's designs. There is stabling for sixty horses. Overhead is a corridor in the form of 

 a cross which divides four airy rooms, and on a higher storey is accommodation for the grooms 

 and coachmen. 



One of the most striking features of the castle is the massive wall which entirely surrounds 

 palace and the grounds. It is about three miles in circumference, a solid bastion of masonry, 



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