ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
of Tivoli above the rushing waters of the Anio, to be 
the site of his famous pleasure-house ? But already 
the great age was passing away and the baroque was 
fast gaining ground. Everywhere during the seven¬ 
teenth century we find chateaux d'eaux , water-organs, 
girandolas, spouting giants, “wetting sports and all 
those artificial miracles” which were the inevitable 
features of a Roman garden in the days of our English 
travellers, Evelyn and Lassels. Such extravagances 
bore witness to the widespread perversion of taste and 
general decadence which prevailed on all sides, and 
could only be redeemed by the beauty of landscape 
and the luxuriant vegetation which is the glory of 
Italian gardens. 
But we have travelled a long way from the Bel¬ 
vedere courts and Raphael’s villa. It is now the 
saddest, most desolate spot in all Rome, this house 
which the Cardinal meant to be so gay. The marble 
statues are gone, those priceless antiques which filled 
Isabella’s soul with wonder. The mighty pillars of 
the hemicycle are crumbling away, its empty niches 
are covered with moss and lichen. Hardly a trace 
remains of the gardens designed by Raphael with such 
elaborate care. The Nymphaeum is a barren waste. 
Of all the temples and porticoes which once adorned 
the grounds only the modest roof of the Palazzina 
may still be seen, half-hidden among the cypresses in 
ioo 
