ITALIAN VILLAS 
and statues. Here garden and house-front are har- 
monized by a strong predominance of architectural lines, 
and by the beautiful lateral loggia, with niches for 
statues, above which the upper ilex- wood rises. Tall 
hedges and trees there are none ; for from the villa one 
looks across the garden at the wide sweep of the Cam- 
pagna and the mountains ; indeed, this is probably one 
of the first of the gardens which Gurlitt defines as “ gar- 
dens to look out from,” in contradistinction to the earlier 
sort, the “ gardens to look into.” Mounting to the ter- 
race, one comes to the third division of the garden, the 
wild-wood with its irregular levels, through which a 
path leads to the mount, with a little temple on its sum- 
mit. This is a rare feature in Italian grounds: in hilly 
Italy there was small need of creating the artificial hill- 
ocks so much esteemed in the old English gardens. In 
this case, however, the mount justifies its existence, for 
it affords a wonderful view over the other side of Rome 
and the Campagna. 
Finally, the general impression of the Medici garden 
resolves itself into a sense of fitness, of perfect harmony 
between the material at hand and the use made of it. 
The architect has used his opportunities to the utmost ; 
but he has adapted nature without distorting it. In 
some of the great French gardens, at Vaux and Ver- 
sailles for example, one is conscious, under all the 
beauty, of the immense effort expended, of the vast up- 
heavals of earth, the forced creating of effects ; but it 
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