House & Garden 
leads from the small 
marble pier around 
and around the steep 
hillside to the palace 
above. Or they may 
drive the eight miles, 
stretching between 
the city of Corfu and 
the palace, along the 
road which winds 
about the little la¬ 
goon,—Lake Kaliki- 
opulo they call it,— 
and among olive 
trees old enough to 
be saints, until it 
threatens to land one 
at Hagii Deka, turns 
unexpectedly into the 
ramshackle old town 
of Gastouri, and 
plants one without 
preliminary warning 
at the lodge-keeper’s 
gate. There one 
pauses long enough 
to spell out the letters 
AXIAAEION, boldly displaying them¬ 
selves above the great entrance gates, and 
takes a hurried and none too satisfactory 
glimpse at the main entrance of the palace, 
although in his eagerness to sweep the whole 
at a single glance, no less than in his belief 
that he will study the opening effect more 
minutely upon his return, his first impress¬ 
ions are more or less hazy and undefined. 
Nor is the visitor alone at fault. The 
palace, rising so majestically at close view, 
leaves the eye unprepared for things of an 
order less magnificent. And between admir¬ 
ation for the stately edifice of marble, and 
the natural inquisitiveness to know what lies 
beyond the broad staircase leading off to 
parts unexplored, one has little inclination to 
follow the driveway to the left for a more 
comprehensive view of the palace, or to 
wander so much as a few paces along the 
terraced walks which lead to the right. Mean¬ 
while the setting of tropical plants and 
shrubs which adorn the space immediately 
before the great porte-cochere is almost lost 
to view. So that if there is one regret, aside 
from the regret common to all visitors that 
things so perfectly 
ordered must be so 
soon left behind, it is 
that the proximity of 
this splendid struc¬ 
ture to its ground 
entrance renders an 
appreciation of its 
points of architectu¬ 
ral excellence little 
less difficult than the 
appreciation of a tow¬ 
ering American sky¬ 
scraper from the side¬ 
walk opposite. 
The gardens lie to 
the rear of the palace 
on a level with the 
first floor above the 
ground floor, and are 
reached either from 
within by the grand 
staircase which opens 
upon the colonnade, 
or from without 
through the beautiful 
series of marble steps 
that lead up from the right side of the palace 
and continue in an avenue of serpentine 
windings to the colonnade above. Its state 
ues of alabaster whiteness, outlined against a 
background of ivy-covered walls and over¬ 
hung by the tall “ dendra diaphora ” which 
lift their heads from far beneath, form a pic¬ 
ture of almost perfect shading. It is doubt¬ 
ful whether any one section or object in this 
palace beautiful, excepting the masterpiece 
in marble of the Dying Achilles or the poetic 
beauty of his triumph over Hector, has a 
more perfect setting and produces a more 
pleasing and lasting impression than this 
marble approach to the palace gardens. 
These gardens, comprising three plots 
terraced into the mountainside, run prac¬ 
tically north and south, and the serpentine 
approach terminates in a semi-circular court 
which opens into the upper terrace at its 
southeastern corner on a level with and 
facing the colonnade. The visitor’s first im¬ 
pulse is to begin with the colonnade, inspect 
the first terrace, then in order, the second 
and third, and finally to return and inspect 
the palace. A decade ago such an order of 
2+3 
THE STATUE OF HEINE 
By the Danish sculptor , Hasse/ries 
