The Villa Palmier! near Florence, Italy 
THE ENTRANCE BESIDE THE GREENHOUSE 
man’s, but of the small business man’s gar¬ 
den in Italy. On the other hand, nearly 
all the great villas have pleasure grounds 
that form part of their architectural design 
and without which it would not be complete. 
When looking over Zocchi’s formal draw¬ 
ings, this becomes very apparent. He 
seems to show us the skeleton of the archi¬ 
tect’s design, the dry bones of every walk 
and of every flower-bed and of every shrub¬ 
bery. Time, however, has softened all that 
was stiff and rigid. The trees have spread 
their branches, the flowers have encroached 
beyond the lines fixed for them, and now, 
as you turn from the old engraving to the 
real thing, it is as if the dead had come 
to life. 
'Phis would certainly be the feeling of any¬ 
one who, after looking at Zocchi’s stately 
drawing of the grand Villa Palmieri, were 
suddenly to find himself in its beautiful gar¬ 
dens. Since Zocchi drew them the hot sun 
has burnt many a rich tone into the old walls 
and now it lies on terrace and 
statue, casting deep shadows from 
tree and shrub, sparkling on the 
water of the fountains and glow¬ 
ing on a wealth of flowers such 
as can only be seen in an Italian 
garden. First and foremost, 
roses. Roses everywhere, in the 
flower beds and on the walls, roses 
pink and white and yellow and 
deep red, of all kinds and of all 
colors blooming with a positively 
reckless profusion. And there 
are other flowers as well, and many. 
A clematis turns its milk white 
petals to the light on this wall; 
lilies-of-the-valley are clustering 
in that shady spot; the faint per¬ 
fume of wistaria, nearly over, still 
floats on the air; above a white 
acacia is showering its scented blos¬ 
soms on the grass below; and 
there are azaleas, and pinks and 
peonies, and yet the mass of roses 
is such that the impression remains 
of roses, and roses alone, every¬ 
where. 
To describe the Villa Palmieri, 
however, we must approach it 
not from the gardens, but by its 
carriage drive which, branching off the high 
road about a mile from the gates of Flor¬ 
ence, runs up a hill, with the podere to 
the left, the gardens to the right, the latter 
being screened from view by a thick hedge 
of clipped cypresses. You reach the cancello , 
or iron gates, that close in the grounds. 
Above, to your right, is the terrace, under 
which, through the old Arco dei Palmieri , 
once ran the old road to Fiesole. Now this 
is closed, the late Earl of Crawford and 
Balcarres having benefited the public at large 
and added to the privacy and quiet of his 
own grounds by making a new road, which, 
skirting his property, rises gradually until it 
emerges in the village of San Domenico. 
The cancello passed, the road runs upward 
and then curves round through a small wood, 
whose trees serve the double purpose of 
shading the drive and protecting the house 
from the cold winds that blow down from 
the higher hills beyond. The villa is entered 
from the north. All is in shade on this side, 
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