jets play back and forth across the cascade, forming a series of water 

 arches. Vases, finials, and rudely sculptured marbled figures are placed 

 at salient points about the cascade and the terrace wall that overhangsit. 



The general effect of the cascade and its surroundings is good. The 

 overhanging masses of foliage in which branches of the ilex intermingle 

 with those of huge plane-trees, the rich dark colouring, wherever the 

 moisture reaches, the maidenhair fern swathing the fountain, all add to 

 its charm. The weak point about the cascade, and this marks the 

 decadence of the garden art, is the absence of mouldings from features 

 which certainly cry out for them ; the upper member of the balustrade 

 and of the stepped side walls is cut severely square, with no mouldings 

 whatever, and in many other ways it lacks the refinement found in work 

 of this kind one hundred years earlier. 



Close around this architectural feature stands a group of fine old plane- 

 trees, their huge boles heavily swathed in ivy, which it is to be hoped will 

 not ultimately sap their vitality, for they are handsome trees and could 

 not easily be replaced. These planes have been taken possession of by a 

 small colony of jackdaws, who seem to approve of the comparative quiet 

 during the nesting season. Here they are not disturbed by the all- 

 pervading tourist or the exploring antiquary, who has made the old 

 home of these birds on the Colosseum and Palatine much less desirable. 



Still farther up the hill and beyond the cascade is a niche with 

 pilasters and pediments, terminating a vista. Within this there stands, 

 upon an antique marble base, a statue of an ancient Roman in toga. 

 The flanking walls of the niche end in obelisk-like finials. 



At this point the garden now ends, but twenty years ago it stretched 

 to the summit of the hill, and, in fact, only stopped when Urban VII. 's 

 city wall was reached. The construction of the Passeggiata Margherita, 

 which was opened to the public in 1884, and runs along the summit of 

 the ridge from end to end, from near the Porta S. Pancrazio to the Porta 

 S. Spirito, cut off all the upper part of the gardens, including part of 

 the bosco. 



One would have felt more grateful to the authorities for thus 

 making public one of the best views in Rome had the work been 

 carried out in a more conservative spirit, for several villas and delightful 



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