House&Garden 
Vol. I JULY, 1901 No. 2 
I NOR FEATURES OF ITAL¬ 
IAN GARDENS. By George Wal¬ 
ter Dawson. 
Expanses of wild unbroken plain surround 
the Rome of to-day, and stretch for miles to 
the Sabine and Alban hills on one side, to the 
sea on the other; fields over which rove the 
large-horned Roman cattle, and in which 
dwell none but their herdsmen. In spring 
and early summer this great expanse is won¬ 
derful in its beauty. Tapestried with roses, 
poppies, honeysuckle and genista, it makes, 
with occasional patches of silvery gray green 
wheat, such a picture of delight, that, it is 
almost impossible to imagine it only a few 
weeks later, a sun-baked plain, hot and dreary. 
This broad belt encircling Rome, once cov¬ 
ered by fertile farms and by the dwellings of 
men of wealth and power, has little left of 
its architectural treasures. H ere, a solemn 
line of arches tells of the Roman’s stupen¬ 
dous system for conveying water to his city. 
There, an old tomb brings to mind the life of 
some great man. Occasionally the grass-cov¬ 
ered remains of the walls of some old villa 
call forth thoughts of the once magnificent 
life within them. 
The plough has passed over much of this 
great area, yet the whole expanse has a mel¬ 
ancholy fascination none the less real because 
one may still find remains of many such old 
villas, tombs and temples. These ruins are 
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