254 
THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
holding that the namesake villa at Rome had been sacrificed for the public safety ; when, however, 
Alexander VII succeeded to the Papal Chair the Duke of Lante obtained his desire in return for 
six scudi paid yearly on St. Peters Day. The grant was renewed in I74'-!, and again later, and, 
with some payment, the estate now belongs outright to this same family, the representative of 
the Plouses of Montefeltro and della Roverc, which has itself given four Cardinals and one Pope 
to the Church. 
Various improvements are due to the Lante family. When French gardening was brought 
into fashion, and Louis XIV and Le Notre were setting the example of ribbon borders at 
Versailles, the Duke of that day brought a landscape gardener from France, who laid out the 
elaborate setting of box hedges and borders which surround the grand fountain (Figs. 2^-^ 
and 254). The poor 
man finished his work by 
drowning himself in its 
waters, for what reason 
tradition does not say. 
The guest chambers of 
the villa are hung with 
very handsome old 
French papers, some of 
the earliest ever made. 
They are manufactured 
in small pieces of about a 
foot square, hand painted, 
with a bold, gay pattern 
of birds and flowers, and 
are as bright now as 
when they were new. 
There are very gav 
records of the life led 
here in 1820. The 
ch at elai ne then was 
Margherita Marescotti, 
wife of Don Vincenzo 
Lante. She W'as a leader 
of Florentine society, and 
gathered round her many 
gay and brilliant friends. 
Private theatricals and 
amateur recitations were 
the rage, and we can 
imagine the coming and 
going, the coaches 
swinging through the 
265. — DET.yiL OF THE STAIRWAY. IMe town ; the castle in 
the village below packed, 
as well as the villa, with guests; the al jresco entertainments, the wit and merriment through 
the long hot summer days and nights. An old print in Villa Montalto shows Donna 
Margherita, who is said to have been extremely beautiful in her youth, as a handsome, genial 
woman, scarcely of middle age, in a Josephine dress of velvet, with a lace tucker and her hair 
m bunches of classic curls, sitting along with her two little girls, who wear high-waisted, scanty 
frocks, and their hair a la Chinoise. Among the family papers are some of the old libretti 
which were used by the talented amateur company. Donna Margherita was a devoted friend 
of the Countess of Albany, and there is some tradition, though no actual record, of visits paid 
to the villa by the wife of the unfortunate James Stuart. 
