its centre is marked by a great cockle-shell, in which an amorino sits con- 

 tentedly splashing and playing the live-long day amidst the gold-fish. 

 These little unsophisticated fountain-figures are always a delight, and add 

 much to the colour and life of a garden. To this fountain, as evening 

 fell, came the contadini to water their cattle, great slow-moving, sleepy- 

 looking creatures. One lad in drab shirt, and knee-breeches made of 

 goat-skins, like some good-looking young satyr, would perchance linger 

 in the twilight till you half expected to see some nymph appear from the 

 fountain to welcome him. 



The architectural features of the garden, though well enough planned 

 and eminently well fitted to the lie of the ground, are, like S9 much of 

 the later baroque, poor in detail and sadly deficient in mouldings. But 

 this weakness is to a great extent atoned for by the clever way in which 

 an exceptionally interesting lot of antique marbles have been handled. 

 These are not disposed around the villa as if it were a mere museum, but 

 are used to emphasise the architectural features and salient points of the 

 garden. Sarcophagi, some of which are beautifully sculptured, are used 

 as fountain basins ; terminal figures guard the principal alleys and heads 

 of stairways ; and many beautiful examples of cinerary urns, simply 

 carved altars and cippi, besides certain busts and statues, have all been 

 used with excellent effect. 



At the farther side of the circular plateau the garden falls away 

 sharply with a drop of some fifteen to twenty feet. The great curve of 

 the terrace wall is broken in the centre by a projecting balcony, which 

 overhangs a fountain in the face of the wall beneath. Here four lesser 

 termes or btfrons are used as supports for the simple wrought-iron railing. 

 Wide stairways of easy gradient lead down from either side of the terrace, 

 and following the curve of the wall meet at the fountain below. What 

 little architectural detail this fountain once possessed is now completely 

 lost beneath a delightful tangle of weeds and ferns, which fortunately no 

 one troubles to clear away, and which presents a spectacle far more 

 beautiful to look at than the usual fashionable rock-garden. 



From the balcony you look right over the little valley to a corre- 

 sponding belvedere terrace on the same level, backed by a glorious circle 

 of stone pines. The strip of garden ground between is enclosed by bay 



41 F 



