ANCIENT GARDENS IN EUROPE 5 



day. Varro's well known work^ mostly deals with agriculture, but in 

 the third book he describes his villa at Casinum which, amongst other 

 features, contained an aviary of rare birds, arranged within a portico over 

 which a hempen net was spread. Pliny's descriptions of his two villas are 

 so well known that it is unnecessary to do more than refer to them here. 

 He owned several villas and loved to spend his leisure in seclusion where, 

 as he says, " there is no need to put on your toga, no one wants you in the 

 neighbourhood, everything is calm and quiet, and this in itself adds to the 

 healthfulness and 'cheerfulness of the place, no less than the brightness of the 



THE LAURENTINE VILLA OF PLINY THE YOUNGER, FROM A RESTORATION BY HAUDEBOURT. 



sky and the clearness of the atmosphere." - The two principal villas described 

 were known as the Laurentine and the Tuscan. The former (illus., pp. 

 5 and 6), was situated some fifteen miles to the south-west of Rome upon the sea 

 coast, and the description shows the care with which the position was chosen 

 to embrace the splendid view commanded by the ccenatio or dining-room. 

 An enclosed portico, with a range of windows overlooking the sea on one 

 side and the garden on the other, was arranged so ingeniously that in windy 

 or bad weather either side could be thrown open and acted as a protection 

 to the xystos or flower garden " fragrant with sweet scented violets." 



1 See De Re Rustica, § VIII. 



^ A good translation with restored plans is given in R. Castell's Villas of the Ancients, 1728. 



