The garden has excellent walkes and shady groves, abundance of rare 

 fruit, oranges, lemons, &c., and the goodly prospect of Rome, above all 

 description, so as I do not wonder that Cicero and others have celebrated 

 this place with such encomiums. The palace is indeed built more like a 

 cabinet than anything compos'd of stone and mortar; it has in the middle 

 a hall furnish'd with excellent marbles and rare pictures, especially those 

 of Gioseppi d'Arpino; the moveables are princely and rich. This was 

 the last piece of architecture finish'd by Giacomo de la Porta, who built 

 it for Pietro Card'. Aldobrandini in the time of Clement VIII. . . ." 



Upon the palace level we pass through a beautiful grove of ancient 

 plane trees, planted symmetrically with the boughs trained into a con- 

 tinuous roof overhead, whose deep shadow enhances the delicate colouring 

 of the gnarled trunks. Beyond the grove lies the private garden, well 

 screened on every side by tall trees; even the view over the Campagna 

 has been excluded for the sake of shelter, though this was not 

 always so. 



A pergola wreathed in roses and other climbing plants leads from the 

 entrance wicket to the great central basin with its lovely boat-fountain, 

 the " Fontana della Navicella," where gold-fish sport among the water- 

 lilies and rejoice in the cool limpid water. Originally this fountain stood 

 within a semicircular recess at the end of the main path and was backed 

 by a boschetto. In it, as in the other boat-fountains, there is no attempt 

 slavishly to reproduce a vessel of any sort, the idea merely is taken by the 

 architect-sculptor, who succeeds, as only the old artist could, in producing 

 from his own fancy something infinitely satisfying. The curving and 

 gracious lines of the boat lead upwards at each end to a figure-head, 

 which, Janus-like, has two faces, and is large in proportion to the body 

 of the boat. Water-stained and mossy, the colour is as satisfactory as the 

 form, and only requires the ever-varying reflections to make a most 

 exquisite tout ensemble. 



All around are beds planted with good old-fashioned and harmonious 

 flowers. No begonias, cannas, lobelia cardinalis, or other atrocities, with 

 their vicious colouring, are here, but simple Madonna lilies, sweet- 

 williams, larkspur, snapdragon, carnation, lavender, hollyhocks, and 

 many another old garden favourite, and last, but not least, roses of 



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