by a low wall. At intervals are stone piers surmounted by marble 

 urns for aloes and other sun-loving plants. Above the wall is an 

 overhanging hedge of sturdy box, cut into rounded tufts or bosses 

 along its top, and at its foot are planted deep crimson and the 

 common pink China rose. Towards the close of the writer's visit, 

 these were in their first full blossoming, and, arranged as they were 

 against a harmonious background of grey stone, they made a picture 

 not easily to be forgotten. 



Separated from the ascent by the box hedge is a long green 

 slope, dotted with beds of flowering shrubs. This is entered from the 

 lower end by steps quaintly arranged on a hexagonal plan. The care 

 taken in planning this entrance, with its ante-room or arbour of box, 

 suggests that once these long strips of garden ground were more 

 elaboratel} laid out, possibly with small beds, bordered with box, and 

 in geometrical pattern not necessarily too intricate. Something of 

 this kind would have had a good effect and would have added to 

 the interest of the garden when seen from the belvedere above. 



Beyond these garden plots the ground rises so abruptly that a 

 stairway on a more ambitious scale became almost a necessity. 

 Accordingly, we find some six or eight flights of stairs, one above 

 the other, zig-zagging up the steep ascent, the stairs passing right 

 and left alternately, and so making a symmetrical elevation. 



At the principal landing there is a great niche, with pilasters 

 and cornice, in which stands a heroic statue of Diana. Seen from a 

 little distance, this statue has the unfortunate defect of all these 

 overgrown statues, which dwarf everything else in their immediate 

 neighbourhood. 



This stairway bears some slight resemblance to the one, on a 

 more grandiose scale, at the old Sommariva Villa near Cadenabbia, 

 but this is built entirely of brick, even to the steps themselves. A 

 surface of stucco has been added, and the whole is tinted a pale 

 yellow, though not much of this surface is now visible. Festoons of 

 Banksia roses, yellow and white, hang from cornice and balustrade, 

 even invading the sanctuary of Diana herself To right and left, 

 bushes of oleander hang over from the flanking terraces ; not miserable 



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