THE GARDENS OF PAPAL ROME 



for gardens. When he was at the Vatican he rarely 

 failed to take an afternoon ride on his white mule to 

 inspect the latest improvements in the grounds, and 

 he laid out a garden in the precincts of the Castell' 

 Sant' Angelo, where he spent the Carnival, looking 

 on at masquerades or watching mimic battles in which 

 the members of his household pelted each other with 

 oranges. He too had a country-house which he took 

 delight in beautifying, at La Magliana (Manlian, as the 

 English ambassadors called it), in the Campagna on the 

 way to Fiumicino, nine miles beyond the Porta Portese. 

 It is a pleasant spot, in the green meadows on the banks 

 of the Tiber, with charming views of the winding river 

 and Alban Hills. Girolamo Riario, the nephew of 

 Sixtus the Fourth, first built a hunting-lodge here, sur- 

 rounded by a moat and battlemented walls, on the site 

 of a farm which originally belonged to the Manlian 

 gens, and Julius the Second employed Bramante to add 

 a banquet-hall which still bears the oak-tree of the 

 " della Rovere " on the frieze. Leo the Tenth found 

 La Magliana a convenient centre for hunting expedi- 

 tions, and often sought shelter in this favourite retreat 

 from business cares. In his later years he built a grand 

 staircase and consistorial hall on the upper floor, which 

 Lo Spagna decorated with graceful frescoes of " Apollo 

 and the Muses " from Raphael's designs. And an 



entry in the household accounts kept by the Pope's 

 81 F 



