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120 



THE ART OF GARDEN DESIGN IN ITALY 



the south side is a formal box garden, with orange-trees set off in great earthenware pots against 

 the deep foliage of the ilex background. 



On the road to Grotto Ferrata, a mile or two beyond Frascati, is the Villa Muti, which, 

 although small in size, has nevertheless much romantic charm. It is interesting in this villa 

 to trace the development of succeeding fashions in garden design. In the seventeenth century 

 Rossi's engraving shows the gardens divided into several courtyards, and the house standing 

 upon a platform. A quaint model of the garden preserved in the villa shows its appearance in 

 the eighteenth century, when several ' boschi,' or woods, were planted near to the casino, closely 



clipped on the top and sides to a wall of verdure ; shady walks were provided on all sides near 

 the house, and a large box parterre laid out on the west side. About i860 the whole of the 

 upper garden was converted into a 'giardino inglese,' with deciduous trees planted about in 

 incongruous groups. 



On Plate io8 is a plan of the garden, showing the villa reconstructed in its eighteenth- 

 century form. Two ilex avenues lead to the casino, which is entered at a lower level than the 

 garden. The casino has the fortress-like basement common to all the Frascati houses which 

 were occasionally subjected to visits from the brigands of the neighbouring hills ; the garden 

 entrance is on the south side of the casino, where a flight of steps led to a little water garden 

 surrounded by high cut hedges, a sort of formal bosco, one side of which opened out on to a 

 terrace overlooking the parterre. This parterre was surrounded by pleached alleys upon two sides. 

 A further oblong garden was planned upon the east side of the villa, overlooked by a high terrace, 



