FLORENTINE VILLAS 
remainder by high hedges which divide it on one side 
from the fish-pond garden and on the other from the 
farm. The green is closed at one end by a grotto of 
coloured pebbles and shells, with nymphs and shepherds 
in niches about a fountain. This grotto is overhung by 
the grove of ancient cypresses for which the Gamberaia 
is noted. At its opposite end the bowling-green termi- 
nates in a balustrade whence one looks down on the 
Arno and across to the hills on the southern side of the 
valley. 
The retaining-wall which runs parallel with the back 
of the house sustains a terrace planted with cypress and 
ilex. This terraced wood above the house is very 
typical of Italian gardens : good examples may be seen 
at Gastello and at the Villa Medici in Rome. These 
patches of shade, however small, are planted irregularly, 
like a wild wood, with stone seats under the dense ilex 
boughs, and a statue placed here and there in a deep 
niche of foliage. Just opposite the central doorway of 
the house the retaining-wall is broken, and an iron gate 
leads to a slit of a garden, hardly more than twenty feet 
wide, on a level with the bowling-green. This narrow 
strip ends also in a grotto-like fountain with statues, 
and on each side balustraded flights of steps lead to the 
upper level on which the ilex-grove is planted. This 
grove, however, occupies only one portion of the terrace. 
On the other side of the cleft formed by the little grotto- 
garden, the corresponding terrace, formerly laid out as 
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