The Villa Campi 
Whoever planned them—may it not have 
been Tribolo ?—has utilized the lie of the 
ground most admirably. 
Below the garden and reached by three 
stone steps opposite its central path, we 
come upon a long grass terrace about fifteen 
feet wide and ninety feet long. In England 
it would be called a bowling green. thick 
clipped cypress hedge separates it from the 
garden above, and a stone parapet from an¬ 
other garden below. This parapet opens out 
in the middle into a small amphitheatre of 
stone steps, facing a broad grass walk running 
straight down the hill to the hexagonal foun¬ 
tain and balustrade seen in the illustration. 
The view behind 
the fountain is shut 
in by a row of tall 
cypresses, growing 
at a much lower 
level but tall 
enough to hide all 
view of the podere 
(or farm) below, 
although, above 
them there is a 
magnificent view of 
distant pin e - 
covered hills. To 
the left, as you leave 
the steps, you will 
see a deer reclining 
on a pedestal. Elis 
companion on the 
other side is gone. 
180 
On either side of the grass walk, which 
runs down the hill, is what has become 
a delightful tangle of climbing roses, pome¬ 
granates, magnolias, Japanese medlars, aloes 
and statues. The statues are, however, 
smaller and of finer workmanship than those 
in the drive. Briars, roses and clematis 
creep over everything, the beautiful fruit 
of the pomegranates hangs unpicked on the 
branches, the untrodden grass grows rank, 
but it will be a melancholy day when some 
too zealous gardener puts order into this 
lovely abandon. 
When you have reached the hexagonal 
fountain, that in which the fat Triton sits, 
energetically blowing his silent shell, you 
look east and west, down the grass walks 
more than one hundred and fifty yards long 
each way, ending in modern iron gates of no 
beauty. A thick belt of cypresses runs on 
the lower or southern side of these walks, 
opening out for the little terrace of the Triton 
fountain, and again near the eastern end, to 
curve round a large stone vivajo , or water 
tank, where fish used to be kept alive ready for 
the use of the table. A modern iron railing 
disfigures it now, but the big-headed River 
God sits as he has sat for many a long year, 
turning away from his own ugliness reflected 
in the water before him. 
Another grass walk to the east leads to 
the garden terrace. It runs between the ilex 
wood, here forming a screen, and a splendid 
THE STEPS LEADING TO THE GRASS WALK 
THE BALUSTRADE AGAINST THE ILEX WOOD 
