ITALIAN VILLAS 
but the impression produced is full of a tragic grandeur. 
The villa towers above so high and bare, the descent 
from terrace to terrace is so long and steep, there are 
such depths of mystery in the infinite green distances 
and in the cypress-shaded pools of the lower garden, 
that one has a sense of awe rather than of pleasure in 
descending from one level to another of darkly rustling 
green. But it is the omnipresent rush of water which 
gives the Este gardens their peculiar character. From 
the Anio, drawn up the hillside at incalculable cost and 
labour, a thousand rills gush downward, terrace by ter- 
race, channelling the stone rails of the balusters, leaping 
from step to step, dripping into mossy conchs, flashing 
in spray from the horns of sea-gods and the jaws of 
mythical monsters, or forcing themselves in irrepressible 
overflow down the ivy-matted banks. The whole length 
of the second terrace is edged by a deep stone channel, 
into which the stream drips by countless outlets over a 
quivering fringe of maidenhair. Every side path or 
flight of steps is accompanied by its sparkling rill, every 
niche in the retaining-walls has its water-pouring nymph 
or gushing urn ; the solemn depths of green reverberate 
with the tumult of innumerable streams. “ The Anio,” 
as Herr Tuckermann says, “throbs through the whole 
organism of the garden like its inmost vital principle.” 
The gardens of the Villa d’Este were probably begun 
by Pirro Ligorio, and, as Herr Gurlitt thinks, continued 
later by Giacomo della Porta. It will doubtless never 
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