THE VILLA BORGHESE 



Richard Lassels, in his " Voyage of Italy," writing about the year 

 1 670, says, " Crossing over the Fields, I went to Burghesis Villa and 

 garden, which are a little half mile from the Town. This is the greatest 

 Villa that's about Rome. For here you have store of walks, both open 

 and close, Fish-Ponds, vast Cages for Birds, thickets of Trees, store 

 of Fountains, a Park of Deer, a world of Fruit-trees, Statues of all 

 sizes, Banquetting places, Grotta^s, Wetting Sports, and a stately Pallace 

 adorned with so many rare Statues and Pictures, that their names make 

 a Book in Octavo, which I refer you to. As for the Pallace it self, it's 

 compassed on both sides, by a fair semicircle of Statues, which stand 

 before the two doors, like old Penates and Lares. The Wall of the 

 House is overcrusted with a world of Anticallie, or old Marble-pieces 

 of Antiquity : As that of Curtius spurring into the Forago ; That of 

 Europa hurryed away by "Jupiter, become a Bull, with a world of such 

 like Fables. Entring into the house, I saw divers Rooms full of 

 curiosities." 



We could wish that Lassels had given us, in his quaint language, 

 a more detailed account of these gardens, of whose early state and 

 history we really know remarkably little. 



The Villa Borghese or Pinciana, one of the largest, as it is indeed 

 one of the most interesting and varied of the Villas in the vicinity of 

 Rome, lies immediately outside the walls of the City, between the 

 Porta del Popolo and the Porta Pinciana. Originally of quite modest 

 dimensions, it has from time to time absorbed the adjoining podert, 

 including the Villa Giustiniani, and it may be noted that the entrance 



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