surrounded by a balustrade with stone seats, the pters between being 

 carved alternately with the crowned eagle and the dragon of the 

 Borghese family. At each of the three openings and at the angles, 

 are placed taller bases, which carry antique draped statues, quiet and 

 dignified, and which seem specially adapted to their position. The side 

 walls are skilfully arranged to suit the slope of the ground, the seats 

 which rise one above the other having a particularly happy effect, and 

 where the principal alley enters the court, the piers on either side 

 have fountain basins attached to them into which the water spurts from 

 grotesque masks. 



Before its restoration, not only was the stonework good in design 

 and execution, but the scheme of colour was especially beautiful. 

 The pleasant grey travertine takes kindly to the weather, its open 

 grain being specially favourable to the growth of lichen, moss, and 

 small green things, and where it had received the splash of the foun- 

 tain, the carved work was almost hidden beneath a mantle of maiden- 

 hair fern and rich green moss. In an evil hour, it fell into the hands 

 of the restoring mason, who re-chiselled all the stone-work — the statues 

 only escaping. Kindly Nature will in time replace the moss and lichen ; 

 she is already doing her best, but the re-chiselling is an irretrievable 

 damage to such work as this. That no restoration was necessary, goes 

 without saying, but some one in authority disliked the exquisite colour, 

 and thought it looked " old and dirty " ; and that is a sufficient 

 reason for restoration in any civilised country. 



There is a story current in Rome that the original balustrade 

 was bought by a wealthy American and carried away to his country 

 house in England, and that the Borghese balustrade is a copy. It would 

 be a little difficult to accept this story, except on very good authority ; 

 it may have arisen from the fact that a similar balustrade has long 

 existed in England ; the man who was vandal enough to have removed 

 the original would certainly have preferred a brand new balustrade. 



Each of the minor piers formerly carried a vase or great 

 pot containing a lemon tree or evergreen shrub ; while the ilex 

 trees that surround the court were clipped to form a hedge some 

 twenty feet high, with the upper part overhanging ; not an 



