The fountain in the court near the palazzo deserves special note. 

 It is one of those charmingly simple and well-designed fountains 

 every line of which is right. Unfortunately this fountain is usually 

 so hidden in a mass of arum lilies that half its beauty is lost. The 

 fountain of Venus also, in the parterre beyond, I have seen so 

 smothered in arums that of the spouting dolphins nothing was visible 

 and little of the "Venus herself. 



The somewhat severe lines of the box hedges might be felt a 

 little oppressive, were it not for the neighbouring grove of ilex and 

 the fine groups of stone pines which are such a striking feature of 

 the garden. 



From the approach terrace, at the side of the palazzo, one looks 

 over the soft grey roofs and minor domes and turrets to that dominating 

 feature in the surrounding landscape, the dome of St. Peter's, which 

 nowhere is seen to such advantage. 



On the opposite side of the gardens (from the palace) the ground is 

 on a level with the top of the old city walls, and one looks over the 

 Borghese park and the Campagna. At many salient points, in the 

 hedges and elsewhere, stand terminal statues of marble. Where paths 

 cross, the corners are cut off and often hollowed out so as to receive 

 marble benches now all mellowed with age. 



Placed at intervals in the gardens are good sarcophagi. Some of 

 these are used as fountain basins, in others China roses are planted. Once 

 scattered in every direction and converted into cisterns and washing vats, 

 and even troughs for swine, they came to be recognised later as works of 

 art, worthy to decorate nobles' gardens. 



In the parterre, with its five-foot high hedges of box, there is a pro- 

 fusion of flowers, including China roses, pale pink and deep crimson, 

 pansies, pinks, poppies, snapdragons and larkspurs, with here and there 

 an oleander or magnolia, and all along the terrace wall clambering over 

 the statues and niches are various climbing tea-roses, while round the 

 court, between the marble benches, set baci; against the box hedge, are 

 ranged great pots of red or white azalea. 



Formerly the road that now leads to the Pincian Gardens ended at 

 the forecourt of the Villa Medici. This court is enclosed on three sides 



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