THE VATICAN GARDENS, ROME. 
27 
blue and white anemones and rosy cyclamen and bluebells, and the blackbirds and nightingales 
are singing in the undergrowth. 
At the top of the w'ood the ground opens out, and upon the crest of the hill is a small villa 
with plainly furnished rooms and a little chapel, built as a summer residence for Leo XIII, 
The long W'all here, with the Saracenic tower, was that held by the Roman volunteers who fought 
so well against the French in 1849. The sculptor W. W. Story speaks of his visit during the 
defence. “ As we looked from the wall on this the third day after the battle, we saw the monks 
under the black flag looking for the unburied dead who had fallen in the ditches or among the 
hedges. The French had retreated without an eft'ort to bury their dead, and a living, wounded 
man was found on this third day with the bodies of two dead soldiers lying across him.” A 
little below' this we come to a tinv summer-house, in which is a gilt chair where His Holiness 
37. — BRONZE FIR CONE : AN OLD ROMAN FOUNTAIN IN BRAMANTe’s HEMICYCLF, ENDING THE 
BELVEDERE COURT. 
may rest after the climb up-hill. A shady pergola of vines stretches in front of it, under which 
the light is golden green on the hottest summer day, and this is a favourite promenade of the 
present, as it was of the late. Pope. Not far off is Pope Leo’s little w'riting house, in which he 
used often to transact business with his secretary. During the great heat Leo XIII often went 
up to the garden at nine in the morning, after saying Mass, and spent the whole day in the 
garden, receiving everyone there, dining in the garden pavilion, guarded by the Swiss, to whom 
he generally sent a measure of good wine, and in the cool of the day he would take a drive, and 
not return to the Vatican till after sunset. The road passes near his little summer-house, and 
it was at this point that on his last drive the aged pontiff stopped the carriage and, raising 
himself, looked long over the Eternal City lying below' him, w'ith the Alban Hills rising far 
(I) Cirass Lawn. ( 0 ) lintrance porches to (ii) Cabinet. 
(’) Pond ( 7 ) Clval court paveil with mosaic. (12) Staircase to first floor and belvedere. 
(^) hoggia. l8) C'estibule with marble columns. (13) Dry ditches to isolate from planta- 
(4) Stairways to upper level. (')) Salon. 
(5) handings and entrance to ditch. (i°) Small salon. 
[See on 
page 26.) 
