ITALIAN VILLAS 
arches divided by slender coupled shafts. Very fine, 
also, is the arched and rusticated doorway surmounted 
by a stone escutcheon. 
The villa is approached by a cypress avenue which 
leads straight to the open space before the house. The 
ridge on which the latter is built is so narrow, and the 
land falls away so rapidly, that there could never have 
been much opportunity for the development of garden- 
architecture ; but though all is now Anglicized, it is easy 
to trace the original plan : in front, the open space sup- 
ported by a high retaining-wall, on one side of the house 
the grove of cypress and ilex, and at the back, where 
there was complete privacy, the small giardino segreto , 
or hedged garden, with its parterres, benches and 
statues. 
The purpose of this book is to describe the Italian 
villa in relation to its grounds, and many villas which 
have lost their old surroundings must therefore be 
omitted ; but near Florence there is one old garden 
which has always lacked its villa, yet which cannot be 
overlooked in a study of Italian garden-craft. Even 
those most familiar with the fascinations of Italian gar- 
dens will associate a peculiar thrill with their first sight 
of the Villa 1 Campi. Laid out by one of the Pucci 
family, probably toward the end of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, it lies beyond Lastra-Signa, above the Arno, about 
1 Villa, in Italian, signifies not the house alone, but the house and 
pleasure-grounds. 
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