ITALIAN VILLAS 
We have to do here with one of the fortified residences 
rarely seen save in the north, but doubtless necessary 
in a neighbourhood exposed to the ever-increasing 
dangers of brigandage. Italy, indeed, built castles and 
fortified works, but the fortress-palace, equally adapted 
to peace and war, was almost unknown.” 
The numerous illustrated publications on Caprarola 
make it unnecessary to describe its complex architecture 
in detail. It is sufficient to say that its five bastions are 
surrounded by a deep moat, across which a light bridge 
at the back of the palace leads to the lower garden. To 
pass from the threatening fagade to the wide-spread 
beauty of pleached walks, fountains and grottoes, brings 
vividly before one the curious contrasts of Italian coun- 
try life in the transition period of the sixteenth century. 
Outside, one pictures the cardinal’s soldiers and bravi 
lounging on the great platform above the village ; while 
within, one has a vision of noble ladies and their cava- 
liers sitting under rose-arbours or strolling between 
espaliered lemon-trees, discussing a Greek manuscript 
or a Roman bronze, or listening to the last sonnet of the 
cardinal’s court poet. 
The lower garden of Caprarola is a mere wreck of 
overgrown box-parterres and crumbling wall and balus- 
trade. Plaster statues in all stages of decay stand in 
the niches or cumber the paths ; fruit-trees have been 
planted in the flower-beds, and the maidenhair withers 
in grottoes where the water no longer flows. The archi- 
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