Minor Features of Italian Gardens 
near Rome. It is as different from the old 
inn in the Campagna, as can well he. Its 
beautiful trees, its cool drives and walks, its 
many fountains, its fine green stretches and 
its superb collection of paintings and sculp¬ 
ture, are features which every visitor to 
Rome knows and loves. Its general plan, 
has, however, un¬ 
dergone such 
changes that the 
student turns from 
it to take delight 
in, and gain knowl¬ 
edge from the many 
fragments and 
small features such 
as fountains, stat¬ 
ues, little temples, 
urns and seats. Vis¬ 
tas are ended by 
temples or by some 
architectural frag¬ 
ments. Urns or 
statues mark the 
angle where two 
paths merge into 
one. Where the 
smaller walks cross 
each other, Circu¬ 
lar Seats are found 
about A Fountain , 
so arranged as to 
mark the centres 
of the paths. They 
are low comfort¬ 
able seats, simple in 
their lines like the 
basins which they 
surround, and they are overhung by fine old 
trees. All must remember with delight the 
immediate approach to the Casino. Jt is a 
rich effect of seats, backed by low walls, and 
connected by balustrades, the openings and 
corners accented by ornamented pedestals 
bearing beautiful olci Roman statues. From 
the panels of the pedestals grotesque masques 
spurt water into lower basins. The whole is 
beautified by a most luxuriant grove of trees 
just behind it. From this point, rich yet 
simple in its character, wherever one walks 
h,e comes across other seats, never again of so 
elegant a nature, but ever in harmony with 
the surroundings. About the little race 
course ,—The Piazza di Siena , cut into the 
sloping bank, are other seats, raised one above 
another in an am¬ 
phitheatre. In 
the small groves 
separate seats, al¬ 
ways of stone, are 
placed among the 
trees. Often they 
are made of upright 
blocks, sometimes 
ornamented, con¬ 
nected by hori¬ 
zontal slabs. Again 
they are made from 
one solid piece of 
stone. But at all 
times they seem to 
belong just where 
they are found. 
Now and again 
seats are built about 
the trunk of a 
beautiful old tree, 
and in such a place, 
cool and secluded, 
it is a pleasure to 
rest, to meditate 
and rejoice that in 
spite of the injuries 
of time so much 
that is lovely still 
remains. The exact 
importance of these minor accessories it might 
be hard to define. Their invariable presence 
in one form or another makes it hard to con¬ 
ceive of an Italian garden without them, for 
such a garden would be as bald as a house 
without furniture. Indeed it is dangerous to 
theorize about any of the elements that add 
to the illusive charm of the Italian garden, a 
charm that has baffled the closest analysis of 
even its most sympathetic critics. 
y 
8 
