CAPRAROLA. 
225 
SOUTHERN EDGE OF THE PARTERRE. 
This is the garden of the Hermes and Caryatida;. On one side stands the Casino or 
summer-house, a small villa having three storeys to the east and one to the west (Fig. 233) ; 
it eontains three or four rooms on each floor, and a gaily frescoed loggia looks out both on 
the east and west fronts. The peculiar distinction of this garden consists in the twenty-eight 
giant stone figures which stand round it on three sides. Interspersed with tall cypresses, they 
have a picturesque stateliness such as can hardly be matched elsewhere. Each one is 
different, with a beautiful natural variety : some stand in couples, whispering together (Fig. 242) ; 
a faun blows a conch shell into his companion’s ear, who wards off the sound with his hands, 
another plays Pan’s pipes ; one nymph, with her hands thrown up behind her head, seems to 
lean lazilv back in a cypress bower ; others clasp young birds or bunches of grapes ; over all. 
Time has flung his hoary charm (Fig. 238). They stand out high and erect, and are seen against 
the melting blue of the far distance. double stairway, rich in dolphins and sea-beasts, leads 
to the remains of another garden behind the Casino. Here still stands a slender fountain 
with a graceful semicircle of fountain gateways (Fig. 245), and from this one passes into the 
woods again. The upper part of the grounds is left to run wild, except that the box 
hedges are cut. 
It is impossible adequately to describe the charm of this high poised and lovely garden. It 
is in extraordinarily good preservation, and this is the more striking, because there is not the 
slightest sign of any restoration. As the photographs show, the carving of the stonework is as 
clear and well cut as ever. Look at the detail of the mouldings of the east and west stairways 
(Figs. 240 and 241), the bold and grotesque dolphins of the cascades. The whole garden has a 
look of weird melancholy, almost magical in its effect ; and, forlorn as it is, maybe it is yet more 
beautiful in its solitary silence than it could have been in its first hour of magnificence. 
The west of the garden terminates in the stables, erected for Cardinal Alessandro, from 
Vignola’s designs. There is stabling for sixty horses. Overhead is a corridor in the form of 
a cross which divides four airy rooms, and on a higher storey is accommodation for the grooms 
and coachmen. 
One of the most striking features of the castle is the massive wall which entirely surrounds 
palace and the grounds. It is about three miles in circumference, a solid bastion of masonry. 
