LOMBARD VILLAS 
once laid out in a series of elaborate gardens. Adjoin- 
ing the villa is a piece of level ground just above the 
lake, which evidently formed the “secret garden” with 
its parterres and fountains. This has been replaced by a 
lawn and flower-beds, but still keeps its boundary-wall 
at the back, with a baroque grotto and fountain of pebbles 
and shell-work. Above this rises a tapis vert shaded 
by cypresses, and leading to the usual Hercules in a 
temple. The peculiar feature of this ascent is that it is 
bordered on each side with narrow steps of channelled 
stone, down which the water rushes under overlapping 
ferns and roses to the fish-pool below the grotto in the 
lower garden. Beyond the formal gardens is the bosco , 
a bit of fine natural woodland climbing the cliff-side, 
with winding paths which lead to various summer- 
houses and sylvan temples. The rich leafage of walnut, 
acacia and cypress, the glimpses of the blue lake far 
below, the rush of a mountain torrent through a deep 
glen spanned by a romantic ivy-clad bridge, make this 
bosco of the Villa d’Este one of the most enchanting 
bits of sylvan gardening in Italy. Scarcely less en- 
chanting is the grove of old plane-trees by the water- 
gate on the lake, where, in a solemn twilight of over- 
roofing branches, woodland gods keep watch above the 
broad marble steps descending to the water. In the 
gardens of the Villa d’Este there is much of the Roman 
spirit — the breadth of design, the unforced inclusion of 
natural features, and that sensitiveness to the quality 
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