approach to the village is through the castle itself is due to the fact that 

 the village lay within the castle w^alls, an interesting and possibly unique 

 survival of feudalism. The palace, lying well back and to one side of 

 the gardens which it overlooks, appears to have been remodelled and 

 enlarged during the first half of the seventeenth century, but a castle 

 stood there long before that time, and underwent a long siege from the 

 Florentines in 1430. 



The garden, as it now exists, probably dates from the early years of 

 the eighteenth century,. but the general scheme of the villa is possibly 

 much older. It would be necessary to go far to find a garden as 

 complete and as little modernised as this. Even in the vicinity of 

 Rome, rich as it is in villas, there are few superior to it, and in all 

 Tuscany there is nothing to compare with it. Gardens like that of the 

 Villa Lante rely for their interest largely upon the work of mason or 

 sculptor ; here the sculptor's art is a matter of secondary importance, 

 and interest centres in the walls of living verdure and the gardener's 

 treatment of them. Scattered over the length and breadth of Italy were 

 many gardens, which, like this one, were made a delight by their 

 restful green hedges clipped as fancy directed ; but a short period of 

 neglect, a stupid gardener, or the caprice of fashion, consigned the 

 majority to oblivion. Few of these villas, however, can have been so 

 elaborately devised or so charmingly carried out as this Villa Garzoni, 

 and, taking the place as a whole, you may seek far ere you find a more 

 complete example of an Italian villa. 



Immediately within the entrance gate lies the flower garden, 

 enclosed by high hedges of cypress whose tops are fancifully clipped in 

 curves and bosses. In plan it is symmetrical, alternately curved and 

 straight hedges giving opportunities for a most exquisite play of light 

 and shade in the rich velvety green ; for cypress, when clipped, has if 

 possible a more beautiful texture than yew. Originally laid out as a 

 pure parterre de broderie, the flowers in their insinuating way have 

 gradually crept in, until, at the present day, the curving and interlacing 

 box is quaintly and interestingly mingled with flowers which break up, 

 and often disguise, the intricate pattern. 



On either side of the broad central walk is a circular fountain-basin 



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