ITALIAN VILLAS 
is first a Garden to the East that rises up from the Lake 
by five rows of Terrasses, on the three sides of the Gar- 
den that are watered by the Lake, the Stairs are noble, 
the Walls are all covered with Oranges and Citrons, and a 
more beautiful spot of a Garden cannot be seen: There 
are two buildings in the two corners of this Garden, the 
one is only a Mill for fetching up the Water, and the 
other is a noble Summer-House [the hexagonal pavil- 
ion] all Wainscotted, if I may speak so, with Alabaster 
and Marble of a fine colour inclining to red, from this 
Garden one goes in a level to all the rest of the Alleys 
and Parterres, Herb-Gardens and Flower-Gardens, in 
all which there are Varieties of Fountains and Ar- 
bors, but the great Parterre is a surprizing thing, for as 
it is well furnished with Statues and Fountains, and is 
of a vast extent, and justly scituated to the Palace, so at 
the further-end of it there is a great Mount, that face of 
it that looks to the Parterre is made like a Theatre all 
full of Fountains and Statues, the height rising up in five 
several rows . . . and round this Mount, answering to 
the five rows into which the Theatre is divided, there goes 
as Many Terrasses of noble Walks, the Walls are all as 
close covered with Oranges and Citrons as any of our 
Walls in England are with Laurel: the top of the Mount 
is seventy foot long and forty broad, and here is a vast 
Cestern into which the Mill plays up the water that must 
furnish all the Fountains . . . The freshness of the Air, 
it being both in a Lake and near the Mountains, the 
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