A Letter to Pliny Relating to the Villa Castello 
our glasses, we would consider the garden, 
or you should tell me more than I know of 
the “ Principis angusta Caprearum in rupe 
sedentis ,” as Juvenal has it; but as you are 
not here, I shall say, as you do to Domitius, 
“ 1 should have ended before now, for fear 
of being too chatty, had I not proposed in 
this letter to lead you into every corner of 
the house and garden. Nor did 1 appre¬ 
hend your thinking it a trouble to read the 
description of a place which 1 feel sure would 
please you, were you to see it; especially as 
you can stop just where you please, and by 
throwing aside my letter, sit down, as it were, 
and give yourself a rest as often as you think 
proper.” 
So farewell, my dear Pliny, and in what¬ 
ever corner of the dim shadow-land you may 
be dwelling, rest assured that there are some 
still in the sunlight who remember you and 
who love the things that you loved,—and 
what did you love more than villas and gar¬ 
dens ? 
Farewell, 
r u s t i c u s . 
A Bi ll of Poppies at the Villa Castello 
of your days were left to grow wild and 
made themselves at home all over the island. 
Traversing the pergola, we turn back 
towards the house and come to a fountain, 
almost choked with calla-1 ilies, and a seat 
near by from which to observe the water,— 
for it is a rare sight in streamless Capri. We 
pass by two old cisterns, over one of which 
are columns with an entablature. These 
cisterns were once rooms of an ancient villa, 
and in fact, all this part of the garden is full 
of the mason-work of your days, and who 
can tell what was the Roman name of the 
Villa Castello?—perhaps you can. Near by 
is a fragment of an old hallway, now a grotto 
dedicated to Bacchus and Venus;— 
“ Of ancient gods these two alone abide 
Corroding rust and ruin reaped of time.” 
This and other things you may read on the 
walls, if the ivy and ferns have not obscured 
them. 
And now, were you here, I should say 
that there was a bottle of old Capri wine 
awaiting you, and that more at leisure over 
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