ROMAN VILLAS 
alighted “at Monsieur Petit’s in the Piazza Spagnola,” 
many of the great Roman villas were still in the first 
freshness of their splendour, and the taste which called 
them forth had not yet wearied of them. Later trav- 
ellers, with altered ideas, were not sufficiently interested 
to examine in detail what already seemed antiquated 
and out of fashion; but to Evelyn, a passionate lover 
of architecture and garden-craft, the Italian villas were 
patterns of excellence, to be carefully studied and mi- 
nutely described for the benefit of those who sought 
to imitate them in England. It is doubtful if later 
generations will ever be diverted by the aquatic “sur- 
prises ” and mechanical toys in which Evelyn took such 
simple pleasure; but the real beauties he discerned are 
once more receiving intelligent recognition after two 
centuries of contempt and indifference. It is worth 
noting in this connection that, at the very height of the 
reaction against Italian gardens, they were lovingly 
studied and truly understood by two men great enough 
to rise above the prejudices of their age: the French 
architects Percier and Fontaine, whose volume con- 
tains some of the most suggestive analyses ever written 
of the purpose and meaning of Renaissance garden- 
architecture. 
Probably one of the least changed among the villas 
visited by Evelyn is “the house of the Duke of Flor- 
ence upon the brow of Mons Pincius.” The Villa 
Medici, on being sold by that family in 1801, had the 
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