PREFACE 
These sketches on Renaissance Gardens and their 
makers were first written at the suggestion of a 
lamented friend, whose memory is honoured and 
cherished by men and women of all classes and nation¬ 
alities throughout Italy, Enid, Lady Layard. Every¬ 
thing connected with Venice, where she made her home 
for the last thirty-five years of her life, was dear to her, 
more especially the traditions which linger about the 
palazzi and piazze , the narrow canals and calli with 
which she had so close and intimate an aquaintance. 
And she loved the villas and gardens of the mainland, 
the district of Asolo and the Trevigiana, the shores of 
the Brenta and the Lago di Garda, the green slopes 
of the Berici and Euganean hills. Nor was her love 
of Italy confined to any one province. Umbria and 
Tuscany, Fiesole and Settignano, the stately fragments 
of Roman gardens, the villas of Tivoli and the 
Campagna, were alike dear to Lady Layard, and her 
memory still haunts these enchanted regions. 
To-day most of the gardens described in these pages 
have unfortunately perished, and only live in the 
writings of Renaissance humanists, in the prose of 
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