Petraja and the hilly landscape, the most interesting part of the picture 

 being some peasants who play a game of bowls on the green sward with 

 much energy and gesticulation. 



Like its neighbour, the Villa Reale, this villa stands at the point 

 where the broad plain and the foot-hills join, and, as it was on gently 

 sloping ground, only very slight terracing was necessary. To the east 

 of the house a garden-court is enclosed by a semicircular wall of a 

 singularly fanciful type. Seats are built into the low wall, which, 

 curving up on either side, joins a series of tall piers which carry 

 alternately fountain basins and statues representing the four seasons. It 

 is interesting to note that the architect did not trouble to level this 

 piece of ground ; seats and piers, fountains and statues rise by a series of 

 slight steps all round the curve. 



To the right of this little garden-court lies the parterre. Box- 

 bordered beds are ranged around a simple' fountain-basin with its 

 wrought-iron guard-rail. The garden beds are carpeted with flowers ; 

 pansies, larkspurs, poppies, snapdragons, and, " in the time of roses," all 

 among the lemon trees with their pleasant red-grey pots, roses of every 

 kind and of every hue peep out, for here, under kindly treatment. 

 Bourbons, Teas, Noisettes bloom freely, as though winter were unknown 

 in Tuscany. 



On the opposite side of the palazzo are the bosco and wilderness. 

 Through the midst of this a shady path leads direct to a wide opening 

 among the trees, where, on either side of a moss-grown fountain-basin, 

 curving steps lead upward to the ilex grove and peschiera. It is a curious 

 piece of baroque planning, with not a straight line anywhere. 



The low terrace wall finished with a graceful balustrade curves round 

 to right and left, enclosing the double stairway, each step curving in its 

 turn and all radiating from a roll placed at the outer edge like some 

 newel-post. In the centre is an oval basin decorated with grotesque 

 masks, from which great garlands swing. At the back of this a 

 refreshing stream of limpid water issues from a horse's head, which, 

 surmounted by a coronet, forms the centre of a bizarre arrangement of 

 rococo scroll-work. 



It is all very fantastic and no doubt wicked in its disobedience of all 

 the canons of architecture, yet, thanks in part to the kindly weather 



97 N 



