ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
grassy lawns and clear pools, or, as at Fiesole and 
Poggio Gherardo, you saw all Valdarno lying at your 
feet, with the mountains of Carrara in the distance and 
the domes and towers of Florence rising out of the 
violet haze. The landscape formed an important part 
of the garden and was included in the general com¬ 
position. Cypress and ilex avenues made fine per¬ 
spectives along the hillside; the beauty of distant 
peaks and far blue plains was heightened by the over¬ 
arching trees that framed in the vista. Close to the 
house lay the Giardino segreto, well shut in by clipped 
hedges of ilex or laurel—a little garden with sunny 
walks for winter days and a bosco to afford a retreat 
from the noonday sun, a lawn with a fountain in the 
centre and a sunk parterre filled with roses and pinks. 
Lilies and sunflowers in big marble or terra-cotta vases 
might be placed along the balustrade of the retaining 
wall, and roses and jessamine were grown on trellis- 
work or allowed to wander at will over the low stone 
parapet. But few flowers, as a rule, we suspect, were 
to be found in Renaissance gardens. Herein, as Sir 
William Temple remarks, lies the great difference 
between English and Italian gardens. 
“In the warmer regions, fruits and flowers of the 
best sort are so common and so easy of production 
that they grow in the fields and are not worth the 
cost of enclosing, or the care of more than ordinary 
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