VILLAS ON THE LAKE OF COMO 47 



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the grounds. The villa contains much of interest, and the arrangement of the central loggia, 

 with courtyard behind, is very inviting during the hot summer months, for which it was espe- 

 cially designed. An intermittent spring in the court ebbs and flows every three hours in an 

 uncanny manner. It is supposed to be one described by the younger Pliny, and gives its name 

 to the villa. 



Shelley, writing in 18 18, when he was endeavouring to procure the villa, thus describes 

 the view from the loggia: ,'The scene from the colonnade is the most extraordinary, at once, 

 and the most lovely that eye ever beheld. On one side is the mountain, and immediately over 

 you are clusters of cypress-trees of an astonishing height that seem to pierce the sky. Above 

 you, from among the clouds as It were, descends a waterfall of immense size, broken by the 

 woody rocks into a thousand channels to the lake. On the other side is seen the blue extent 

 of the lake and the mountains, speckled with sails and spires. The terraces, which overlook the 

 lake under the shade of such immense laurel-trees as deserve the epithet of Pythian, are most 

 delightful.'^ 



Not far from the Villa Pliniana, jutting out on a rocky prominence into the lake, is the 

 picturesque Villa Balbianella. Here and there a saintly figure upon the balustrade with out- 

 stretched arms gives cjuite a monastic air to this delightful spot. The situation is so precipitous 

 that one would hardly expect to see any elaborate scheme of garden design ; but now and then a 

 small space levelled in the rocks connects with another, with the result that one is constantly 

 meeting with little surprise gardens, winding paths and stairways. A flight of steps leads from the 

 little port to a belvedere terrace enclosed by a balustrade of charming design (Plate 10), with 

 ecclesiastical figures in attitudes of benediction, overlooking the lake. 



After the Villa d' Este and the Villa Pliniana most of the remaining villas seem almost 

 commonplace, with the exception of the Villa Carlotta at Cadenabbia, with its charming water 

 steps overshadowed by plane-trees, behind which the casino is seen rising above a series of 

 terraces and stairways. As is so frequently the case in Italy, the casino itself boasts of but little 

 architectural beauty. It seems as though, the garden having been constructed, the original 

 builders felt disinclined to spend more than was absolutely necessary upon the dwelling-house, 

 quite reversing the usual order of things. 



In Dal Re's rare and interesting work, 'Ville di Delizia di Milano ' published in 1763, 

 are engravings showing the villa as it was originally designed ; it was then known as the Villa 

 Sommariva, and was laid out for Marchese Clerici. In 1842 it was purchased by the Princess 

 Albrecht of Prussia, from whose daughter Charlotte it received its present name. The villa is 

 now the property of Prince George of Saxe-Meiningen. 



At the present day the only parts of the original garden scheme still remaining are the 



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entrance court and stairway, and some of the terraces ; the remaining part of the garden has 

 been modernised and is not shown on the plan in Plate 11. Dal Re's view shows the terraces 



' Letters from Italy. (Milan : April 20, 1818.) 



