VILLAS NEAR ROME 
of the inclusion of the woodland in the garden-scheme. 
All the sixteenth-century villas had small groves ad- 
jacent to the house, and the shade of the natural wood- 
land was used, if possible, as a backing to the gardens; 
but at the Villa Lante it is boldly worked into the gen- 
eral scheme, the terraces and garden-architecture are 
skilfully blent with it, and its recesses are pierced by 
grass alleys leading to clearings where pools surrounded 
by stone seats slumber under the spreading branches. 
The harmonizing of wood and garden is one of the 
characteristic features of the villas at Frascati ; but as 
these are mostly later in date than the Lante grounds, 
priority of invention may be claimed for the designer 
of the latter. It was undoubtedly from the Italian park 
of the Renaissance that Le Notre learned the use of the 
woodland as an adjunct to the garden ; but in France 
these parks had for the most part to be planted, whereas 
in Italy the garden-architect could use the natural 
woodland, which was usually hilly, and the effects thus 
produced were far more varied and interesting than 
those possible in the flat artificial parks of France. 
II 
VILLA d’eSTE 
Of the three great villas built by cardinals beyond the 
immediate outskirts of Rome, the third and the most 
famous is the Villa d’Este at Tivoli. 
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