flowers. A vine pergola leads from the gate to a little fountain that 

 overhangs the wall and is presided over by Vertumnus, who, as usual, is 

 represented with a lapful of fruit. On the base of the statue is the 

 punning inscription : 



ASPICE VERTUMNUM DANTEM SUA POMA PUELLIS 

 SUNT MALA QUA CERNIS DETERIORA LATENT. ANNO MDCCXXXI. 



Vertumnus being the god of orchards and the husband of Pomona, 

 who doubtless found a place elsewhere in the garden, it may be taken for 

 granted that, whatever arrangement may have been adopted in laying out 

 the garden, fruit-trees played an important part in it, as indeed they 

 usually do in Italy. 



The view from this terrace is little inferior to that from the Villa 

 Mondragone. At your feet lies the Villa Taverna nestling among its 

 wood of stone pines, amidst which one giant, the last of his generation, 

 rears himself high above his lesser brethren ; to the left is the Villa 

 Lancellotti, its avenues of dark ilex contrasting pleasantly with the softer 

 grey of the olives ; while high up to the right lies Mondragone, a 

 prominent feature in the landscape, with its great terrace, its fountain, 

 and its detached columns standing out against the grey sky ; and beyond 

 this foreground of villas and farms stretches the ever-changing Campagna 

 with the shadows chasing each other over its broken surface. 



An important adjunct to these villas is the reservoir, in which the 

 water, often brought a considerable distance, is collected, and from which 

 it is distributed by a complex system of water-works to the various 

 fountains and giuochi (Tacque. Sometimes, as at the Villa Conti, this is 

 quite an elaborate architectural feature ; here it is an absurdly plain and 

 unsophisticated piece of work. It lies in the higher part of the villa 

 and is called indifferently by the peasants il lago or il laghetto. A very 

 modest /ago this, being only some forty paces long by twenty at its 

 wider end ! The word peschiera, so often given to garden pools, 

 would have better described it, for it abounds with gold-fish large and 

 small. 



Within a dark belt of cypress lies the little pool, reflecting the tall, 

 silent trees, its still surface at rare intervals disturbed by bird or fish. Its 



51 



