A GARDEN IN VENICE 



The outcome of this regard for economy of 

 space and spese is a most commodious house with 

 scarcely a quite square room within it ; and few 

 things are cleverer in decoration than the way in 

 which the old stucco artist adapted his square 

 design to a room that was not so, and makes one 

 lose the sense of unsquareness in both design and 

 room. A big sala runs most times through the 

 centre of the house from front to back, the rooms 

 opening into it on either side, and at the back of 

 very many of the old houses there greets you the 

 lovely surprise of an old and generally abandoned 

 garden. 



The approach proper to a Venetian house is 

 from the water. There are numberless small 

 canals, or rii, that divide, cut up the city into 

 blocks. Sometimes, where the blocks are large, 

 there is a campo in the centre, and houses built 

 around it. Calk, or small footways, run at the 

 back of these ; and, when the space is sufficient, 

 at the back or side of the gardens attached to the 

 houses. These gardens then were, and are, more 

 or less square or oblong ; forms that necessitated 

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