120 
THE ART OF GARDEN DESIGN IN ITALY 
the south side is a formal box garden, with orange-trees set off in great earthenware pots against 
the deep foliage of the ilex background. 
On the road to Grotto Ferrata, a mile or two beyond Frascati, is the Villa Muti, which, 
although small in size, has nevertheless much romantic charm. It is interesting in this villa 
to trace the development of succeeding fashions in garden design. In the seventeenth century 
Rossi’s engraving shows the gardens divided into several courtyards, and the house standing 
upon a platform. A quaint model of the garden preserved in the villa shows its appearance in 
the eighteenth century, when several ‘boschi,’ or woods, were planted near to the casino, closely 
YILI BORGHESE Semidmlar cmrt. connecting G&sino am)Gtuden. 
clipped on the top and sides to a wall of verdure; shady walks were provided on all sides near 
the house, and a large box parterre laid out on the west side. About i860 the whole of the 
upper garden was converted into a ‘giardino inglese,’ with deciduous trees planted about in 
incongruous groups. 
On Plate 108 is a plan of the garden, showing the villa reconstructed in its eighteenth- 
century form. Two ilex avenues lead to the casino, which is entered at a lower level than the 
garden. The casino has the fortress-like basement common to all the Frascati houses which 
were occasionally subjected to visits from the brigands of the neighbouring hills; the garden 
entrance, is on the south side of the casino, where a flight of steps led to a little water garden 
surrounded by high cut hedges, a sort of formal bosco, one side of which opened out on to a 
terrace overlooking the parterre. This parterre was surrounded by pleached alleys upon two sides. 
A further oblOng garden was planned upon the east side of the villa, overlooked by a high terrace, 
