GARDENS OF ESTE AND GONZAGA PRINCES 
gardens, and spared no pains or expense to beautify 
the grounds of the Castello of Milan, which in his 
reign was as much as three miles in extent. One 
thing which he especially admired, both at Mantua 
and at Ferrara, were the swans which sailed in the 
castle moat, and at his request the Marquis of Mantua 
sent some of these handsome birds to adorn the 
trenches under the bastions at Milan. 
When, in the agony of his grief after Beatrice’s 
death, he lavished gifts on the friars of Santa Maria 
della Grazie, in whose church she was buried, one of 
his first thoughts was to enlarge and beautify the 
convent garden. Long afterwards the lively Dominican 
friar, Matteo Bandello, relates how, sitting under the 
long pergola in this same convent garden, he and 
Jacopo Antiquario, the Moro’s old secretary, recalled 
the great acts and noble intentions of Duke Lodovico 
and lamented his miserable end. To-day the Castello 
of Pavia is a barrack, and not a trace remains of the 
Moro’s once splendid gardens at Vigevano and Milan, 
but the famous Certosa, which he helped to build and 
justly called the finest jewel of his crown, is still 
standing in its vast grounds. Here we may see the 
spacious fruit and vegetable garden, with its clumps 
of ancient cypress trees and leafy pergola supported 
by stone pillars; here, close under the domes and 
pinnacles of the stately church, crimson roses bloom 
49 d 
