ITALIAN VILLAS 
house, also adorned with statues. The portcullis opens 
on a long narrow court planted with a hedge of clipped 
euonymus ; and at one end a splendid balustraded stair- 
way d cordon leads up to a flagged terrace with yew- 
trees growing between the flags. To the left of this 
terrace is a huge artificial grotto, with a stucco Silenus 
lolling on an elephant, and other life-size animals and 
figures, a composition recalling the zoological wonders 
of the grotto at Castello. This Italian reversion to the 
grotesque, at a time when it was losing its fascination for 
the Northern races, might form the subject of an inter- 
esting study of race aesthetics. When the coarse and 
sombre fancy of mediaeval Europe found expression in 
grinning gargoyles and baleful or buffoonish images, Ital- 
ian art held serenely to the beautiful, and wove the most 
tragic themes into a labyrinth of lovely lines ; but in the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the classical 
graces had taken possession of northern Europe, the 
chimerical animals, the gnomes and goblins, the gar- 
goyles and broomstick-riders, fled south of the Alps, and 
reappeared in the queer fauna of Italian grottoes and in 
the leering dwarfs and satyrs of the garden-walk. 
From the yew-tree terrace at Cattajo an arcaded 
loggia gives access to the interior of the castle, which is 
a bewilderment of low-storied passageways and long 
flights of steps hewn in the rock against which the 
castle is built. From a vaulted tunnel of stone one 
passes abruptly into a suite of lofty apartments decorated 
