GARDENS OF ESTE AND GONZAGA PRINCES 



gardens, and spared no pains or expense to beautify 

 the grounds of the Castello of Milan, which in his 

 reign was as much as three miles in extent. One 

 thing which he especially admired, both at Mantua 

 and at Ferrara, were the swans which sailed in the 

 castle moat, and at his request the Marquis of Mantua 

 sent some of these handsome birds to adorn the 

 trenches under the bastions at Milan. 



When, in the agony of his grief after Beatrice's 

 death, he lavished gifts on the friars of Santa Maria 

 della Grazie, in whose church she was buried, one of 

 his first thoughts was to enlarge and beautify the 

 convent garden. Long afterwards the lively Dominican 

 friar, Matteo Bandello, relates how, sitting under the 

 long pergola in this same convent garden, he and 

 Jacopo Antiquario, the Moro's old secretary, recalled 

 the great acts and noble intentions of Duke Lodovico 

 and lamented his miserable end. To-day the Castello 

 of Pavia is a barrack, and not a trace remains of the 

 Moro's once splendid gardens at Vigevano and Milan, 

 but the famous Certosa, which he helped to build and 

 justly called the finest jewel of his crown, is still 

 standing in its vast grounds. Here we may see the 

 spacious fruit and vegetable garden, with its clumps 

 of ancient cypress trees and leafy pergola supported 

 by stone pillars ; here, close under the domes and 

 pinnacles of the stately church, crimson roses bloom 

 49 D 



