GARDENS OF VARIOUS NATIONS. S7S 



the Apennines, that I cannot do better than transcribe his own words 

 so far as they relate to the grounds, as this is a type of what the 

 better class of the gardens of this nation were at that period. The 

 house itself stood on a rise of ground and commanded a fine view . 

 of the surrounding country, and it faced the south. Before a portico 

 which was in front of\the house "is," says Pliny, "a sort of terrace, 

 embellished with curious figures, and bounded with a box hedge, 

 from whence you descend by an easy slope, adorned with the repre- 

 sentation of divers animals in box, answering alternately to each 

 other, into a lawn overspread with the soft— I had almost said the 

 liquid — acanthus ; this is surrounded by a walk enclosed with tonsile 

 evergreens, shaped into a variety of forms. Beyond it is the gestatio, 

 laid out in the form of a circus, ornamented in the middle with box 

 cut in numberless figures, together with a plantation of shrubs, pre- 

 vented by the shears from shooting up too high ; the whole is fenced 

 in with a wall covered by box, rising by different ranges to the top. 

 On the outside of the wall lies a meadow that owes as many beauties 

 to nature as all I have been describing within does to art ; at the 

 end of which are several other meadows and fields, interspersed 

 with thickets." The hippodrome, which was here merely a walk, 

 was encompassed on every side by plane-trees covered with ivy, 

 "so that while their heads flourish with their own fohage, their 

 bodies enjoy a borrowed verdure ; and thus the ivy, twining round 

 the trunk and branches, spreads from tree to tree, and connects them 

 together. Between each plane-tree are planted box-trees, and behind 

 these, bay-trees, which blend their shade with that of the planes. 

 This plantation, forming a straight boundary on both sides of the 

 hippodrome, bends at the farther end into a semicircle, which, being 

 set round and sheltered with cypress-trees, varies the prospect, and 

 casts a deeper gloom ; while the inward circular walks (for there 

 are several), enjoying an open exposure, are perfumed with roses, and , 

 correct by a very pleasing contrast the coolness of the shade with 

 the warmth of the sun. Having passed through these several winding 

 alleys, you enter a straight walk which breaks out into a variety of 



