air with coolness and moisture. Much of the architectural detail is 

 lost beneath a veil of rich green moss and water-growth, but all is so 

 delicious in colour, that we could not wish it to be other than it is. 



One of the pictures shows the point at which the cascade is 

 interrupted, midway in the descent, by an oval platform, about which 

 the stairway winds. It is surrounded by statues of marble, toned 

 and mellowed by age into delightful harmony with the great 

 overhanging hedges of evergreen oak. 



In order to reach the upper or hanging garden, as it may be called, 

 a steep pathway must be climbed which leads to a broad terrace walk, 

 only separated from the main garden by a close clipped screen of ever- 

 green. From this walk, with its low parapet, we see at our feet the 

 busy city with its many domes and towers, and away in the distance the 

 low dark hills beyond the Tiber. An opening in the tall hedge admits to 

 the flower garden, the centre of which is occupied by a fountain-basin, 

 with some beds of tea-roses round it, and the only thing that disturbs 

 the deep reflections is a tiny jet of water. From this fountain broad 

 paths radiate in all directions, with good box borders, a foot or more 

 in breadth and high in proportion, which hold up the beds of rich 

 earth, whose surface is some nine inches above the path. These beds 

 are not too small, and are planted full of good old-fashioned flowers, 

 peonies and poppies, white lilies and Canterbury bells, pinks and lavender, 

 carnations and hollyhocks, with here and there a fruit tree or flowering 

 shrub. At intervals about these box borders are placed earthen pots 

 containing lemon-trees or showy bushes of crimson, white, or yellow 

 azalea. 



Beyond the clipped evergreen hedge that closes in the parterre towards 

 the south is a wilder garden, with seats placed beneath the shade of stone 

 pine or cypress trees. So secluded indeed is this garden, that it is a little 

 difficult to imagine oneself in the heart of a great city. 



Returning once more to the lower terrace, we find at the end, facing 

 the long gallery of the palace, a handsome balustrade with a fringe of 

 antique marble statues ; below this are three niches placed between 

 coupled columns of oriental granite. These niches are occupied by 

 statues of three notable members of the great Colonna family ; the one 



25 D 



