House and Garden 
very bad repair. The summit of the hill is 
crowned by a huge statue representing Hercu¬ 
les, and here we are at last informed by whom 
all these works of art were carried out. We 
read the following inscription on the pedestal: 
D'altre opere e di questo Ercole invitto 
Io Giuseppe Catini fui I’autore, 
Che , dopo a ver nella cucina fritto, 
Feci a tempo avanzato lo scultore. 
Del calzolaro pria, da urgenze ajfiitto, 
Mestiero esercitai di malo urnore, 
Estudiai fin d'architettura un poco. 
Fui comico, pi/tor, poeta e cuoco 
A. D. MDCCLVl. 
which has been thus freely rendered in Eng¬ 
lish: 
I, Joseph Catini, who wrought this group, 
Once in the kitchen did make the soup ; 
After long years became a sculptor, 
And of many works I was the author. 
But first, unwilling, tried another trade, 
A shoemaker by sad affliction made ; 
These trades, to be an architect, forsook ; 
Became a comic painter, poet, cook. 
With this information before us the works 
of the artist acquire a new significance and are 
indeed extraordinary. He certainly had no 
“mauvaise bonte” as a bust of the Marchese 
Folco Rinuccini, once at the villa, and now in 
Milan, bears the following inscription: 
Marchese Fulco Rinuccinius 
Josephus Catinius 
Eiusdem cocus 
faciebat. 
Catini also planned the symmetrical walks 
in the wood. That he did so at a time when 
in Italy, as well as elsewhere in Europe, the 
jardin anglais was in fashion, is interesting. 
Our cook was not a man to be swayed by 
fashions. And how right he was! It is mel¬ 
ancholy to think of the many stately Italian 
gardens which were destroyed about this time, 
to be replaced by insipid imitations of nature. 
A jardin anglais without the velvety lawns of 
England is a poor thing, and how can they be 
kept green during the hot and dry summer 
months of Italy ? 
Catini knew better. Nature was not to be 
imitated, she was to be drilled. His walks 
are a bit monotonous, for they are all exactly 
alike, trees, statues and all, but they are infi¬ 
nitely better than a good deal of the nature- 
burdened landscape gardening of the period. 
Behind the group on the hill there is still a 
narrow belt of wood. There the hill, vine- 
covered, runs down precipitately. From this 
point a distant view of Florence can be had on 
fine days, the beautiful town appearing in a 
cleft of the hills that surround it. 
Of the history of Torre a Cona little is 
known. It was too far from Florence to be 
affected by the continual strifes of the restless 
republic; little affected by the vicissitudes of 
the Medici or their ultimate triumph. The 
family that owned it for so many centuries has 
left it, but its walls look strong enough to 
cradle and shelter a new race for as many 
more centuries to come. 
Scene near Volosca 
