THE GARDENS OF PAPAL ROME 
for gardens. When he was at the Vatican he rarely 
failed to take an afternoon ride on his white mule to 
inspect the latest improvements in the grounds, and 
he laid out a garden in the precincts of the CastelP 
Sant’ Angelo, where he spent the Carnival, looking 
on at masquerades or watching mimic battles in which 
the members of his household pelted each other with 
oranges. He too had a country-house which he took 
delight in beautifying, at La Magliana (Manlian, as the 
English ambassadors called it), in the Campagna on the 
way to Fiumicino, nine miles beyond the Porta Portese. 
It is a pleasant spot, in the green meadows on the banks 
of the Tiber, with charming views of the winding river 
and Alban Hills. Girolamo Riario, the nephew of 
Sixtus the Fourth, first built a hunting-lodge here, sur¬ 
rounded by a moat and battlemented walls, on the site 
of a farm which originally belonged to the Manlian 
gens , and Julius the Second employed Bramante to add 
a banquet-hall which still bears the oak-tree of the 
“della Rovere” on the frieze. Leo the Tenth found 
La Magliana a convenient centre for hunting expedi¬ 
tions, and often sought shelter in this favourite retreat 
from business cares. In his later years he built a grand 
staircase and consistorial hall on the upper floor, which 
Lo Spagna decorated with graceful frescoes of “ Apollo 
and the Muses ” from Raphael’s designs. And an 
entry in the household accounts kept by the Pope’s 
81 f 
