VILLA BORGHESE AND THE BORGHESE PALACE, ROME. 
77 
and the result is an ideal landscape, a woodland scene that seems to have been projected out of 
the poet’s mind. If the ancient Faun could reappear anywhere, it must surely be in such a 
scene as this.” 
Imitation classic ruins are constructed here and there out of the ancient materials which 
abounded everywhere. The woodland is broken up by groups of interest. Mounting up 
from the Piazza del Popolo you reach an open space, guarded by two obelisks of red Egyptian 
granite, stone seats are set round against a low wall, a stone lion keeps guard above, and one tall 
cypress stands sentinel. Here is the entrance to the “ Garden of the Lake,” the most popular 
corner of the grounds. The enclosure is gay with flowers, brilliant in the spring with purple 
Judas trees. The lake itself is very pretty, with its swans and its pseudo-Greek temple reflected 
88. — CASINO OF THE VILLA BORGHESE, ROME. 
From cnt old book 0/ Ike Palaces of Rome. 
in the water. Fine sarcophagi and tombs are placed under the old trees, and in spring the 
glades are blue with ground ivy and bluebells. 
In the boscareccio and in the adjoining “park” were formerly situated the “ seraglio of 
the tortoises,” the “ seraglio of the gazelles,” the “ wood for hunting thrushes,” and the 
“ Ragnaia,” or enclosure for coursing hares. Numbers of animals were kept in the park : 
deer, goats, Indian pigs, ostriches, peacocks, swans and ducks, and small birds were as 
legitimate an object of the chase as they still are to-day in Italy. 
Finally we mount up to the nucleus of it all, the casino or pleasure-house which the princely 
Cardinal built to entertain his guests in. It was only a summer-house and never a home, for 
the dread malaria forbade its being dwelt in, save very occasionally. “ If you come hither in 
summer and stray through these glades in the golden sunset, fever walks arm-in-arm with you, 
and death awaits you at the end of the dim vista.” It is set in a courtyard, with flights of steps, 
balustrades of travertine and fountains, and everywhere is sculptured the dragon and crowned 
eagle, the arms of the “ most excellent House of Borghese.” E. M. P. 
(1) Entrance. 
(2) Vestibule open to garden. 
(3) Hall. 
(4) Hall of Seneca. 
(5) Salle des Villes. 
(6) Hall of .\polIo and Daphne. 
(7) Hall of the Emperors. 
(8) Hal! of the Hermaphrodite. 
(9) Hall of the Gladiator. 
( 5 ci? plaa on page 76.) 
(10) Hall of the Egyptian. 
(11) Hall of the Roman. 
(12) Staircase. 
(13) Small botany gardens. 
