6 GARDEN CRAFT IN EUROPE 



The Tuscan country seat, described in his letter to Apollinaris, 

 was his favourite villa, and whereas the Laurentine house was used in the 

 modern sense of a villa in the suburbs, this was intended more as a summer 

 resort and was situated about a hundred and fifty miles from Rome. 



Pliny's writings afford us the finest descriptions extant of Roman 

 villas, and it is remarkable how similar in many points these villas must 

 have been to those of the Italian Renaissance. Some learned restora- 



PLAN OF PLINY S LAURENTINE VILLA, AS RESTORED BY HAUDEBOURT. 



tions on paper have been made by servants. Scamozzi, Felibien, Castell, 

 Marquez, Haudebourt and Bouchet have all endeavoured to reconstruct 

 their glories. The restoration made by Haudebourt in 1852 is in many 

 respects the best, and is conceived in a very architectural spirit, both in 

 reference to its building and in the rectangular nature of its lines. 



This type of villa was known as the Villa Urbana, and the neigh- 

 bourhood of Rome abounded in examples, each one differing in plan from 



