ART lL

tion of ‘erona,

bmit a Nspec- dile of

The t of it,

The ste, as lriana,

rkable of the ures 3 » and

roel t id the , and e pro- - with saints, siness, seum. ferent i, are ularly Fenda, ‘dens, ained only ontial

Italy, srape ulent idity table ncely lants

ustace, e Says, into a when

pose, to the nid of cle of obilis) argest

ytains

Book I. GARDENING IN ITALY. 19

fruit gardens, orangeries, and hot-houses, are all good, and as well managed as the penuriousness of the yresent vice-king will admit. Very fine avenues fead from this residence to Milan. The whole was begun in Beauharnois’ time, under the direction of Sig. Villaresi, one of the most scientific gardeners in Italy, and is still managed under his direction, but with greatly diminished resources.‘ There are various gardens pointed out to strangers as English, veramente Inglese, near Milan, and also at Verona, Vicenza, Brescia, Porta,&c.; and Buonaparte caused a small public garden to be made in Venice.“ In many of the villas on the lake of Como,” Wilson observes,‘‘ it is most delightful to behold the lofty crags frowning over the highly cultivated gardens, with hot-houses of exotic plants, neat terraces, and ornamental summer-houses, subduing the natural wildness of the situation.” Most of those which we visited were too much ornamented, and too full of walks, seats, arbors, and other ornaments, for that

repose and simplicity which, according to our ideas, is essential to an English garden. Art, in most of

these gardens, isas much avowed as in the French style; whereas, in the true English garden, though art is employed, yet itis not avowed and ostentatiously displayed; on the contrary, the grand object is to fol- lov the directions of the Italians themselves, and study that the art“ che tutto fa, nullo st scopre.”

83. At Florence, the ducal gardens of Boboli are the most remarkable.‘They oc- cupy two sides of a conical hill, and part of a bottom, and consist of three parts; a botanic and exotic garden close to the palace Pitti and the celebrated museum; a kitchen- garden, near the hill top; and, a geometric garden which occupies the greater part of the hill. The scene abounds in almost every ingredient of the style in which it is laid out. The ground being very steep, almost all the walks slope considerably; but a few, conducted horizontally, are level, and serve, if the expression be admissible, as rest- ing walks. There are abundance of seats, arbors, vases, planted with agaves and orange-trees; and a prospect tower on the summit, from which, as well as from many other points, are obtained fine views of Florence and the environs. In the lower part or bottom is a handsome basin of water, with an island and fountains in the centre, verged with a marble parapet ornamented with vases of orange-trees, and surrounded by shorn hedges and statues. On the whole, nothing has been spared to render these gardens complete of their kind, and the effect is perhaps as perfect as the situation, from its irre- gularity and steepness, admits of. The public promenade to the Cassino, deserves notice as among the best in Italy. It consists of shady avenues, extending for several miles on a flat surface near the Arno, varied by occasional views of villas and distant scenery. The trees are chiefly elms and chestnuts. There are numerous private gardens round Florence, but none of them remarkable. The fortuitous scenery of Vallombrosa and other romantic situations, are the grand attractions for strangers. On mount Fiesole and thence to Bologna, are some country-seats with lodges, and winding approaches, which, considering the arid soil, are highly beautiful, and come the nearest to those of England of any in the warmer regions of Italy. The Tuscans, Sigismondi ob- serves(Agr. Tosc.), are the more to be condemned for having neglected gardening, since their countryman, Proposto Lastri, has rendered De Lille’s poem in Italian in a style equal to the original. But the gens d lewr aise, and the nobles, he says, have no love of rural nature, and only come into the country after vintage to shoot for a few days, and indulge in feasting. They come in large parties with their ladies, and in a few weeks expend what they have been niggardly laying aside during the rest of the year. He men- tions the Chevalier Forti at Chiari, and Sig. Falconcini at Ceretto, as having delightful gardens; adding that the country-seats of the Luquois are in the best taste of any in Italy.

84. The villas of Rome, Forsyth observes, are to this day the“ ocelli Italix.”’ Their cassinos generally stand to advantage in the park, light, gay, airy, and fanciful. In the ancient villas the buildings were low, lax, diffused, and detached. In the modern, they are more compact, more commodious, and rise into several stories. In both, the gardens betray the same taste for the unnatural, the same symmetry of plan, architectural groves, devices cut in box, and tricks performed by the hydraulic organ.(Rem. on Italy, LiSs) A few cardinals, he elsewhere observes, created all the great villas of Rome. Their riches, their taste, their learning, their leisure, their frugality,— all conspired in this single object. While the eminent founder was squandering thousands on a statue, he would allot but one crown for his own dinner. He had no children, no stud, no dogs to keep; he built indeed for his own pleasure, or for the admiration of others; but he embellished his country, he promoted the resort of vich foreigners, and he afforded them a high intel- lectual treat for a few pauls, which never entered into his pocket. This taste generally descends to his heirs, who mark their little reigns by successive additions to the stock. How seldom are great fortunes spent so elegantly in England! How many are absorbed in the table, the field, or the turf! Expenses which centre and end in the rich egotist himself! What English villa is open like the Borghese, as a common drive to the whole metropolis?(Rem. on Italy, 216.)

The Villa Borghese is the most noted in the neighbourhood of Rome. It has a variety of surface

formed by two hills and a dell, and a variety of embellishments, cassinos, temples, grottoes, aylarics,

modern ruins, Iptured fountains, a crowd of statues, a lake, an aqueduct, a circus; but it wants the

more beautiful variety of an English garden; for here you must walk in right lines, and turn, at right

le. ¢ e al.. wey. AD iene ae es, fatigued with the monotony of eternal ilex.(Remarks,&c. 216.) Eustace says these gardens are fe pcne th eee regard both for the new and the old system, because winding walks are ote found tersecting the long alleys. This is true; but the whole is so frittered down by roads, walks, paths, ana

ive

alleys, and so studded with statues and objects of art, as to want that repose, simplicity, and mi: appearance, essential, at least, to an Englishman’s idea of an English garden. Simplicity, however, 1s a beauty less relished among the nations of the continent than in this country, and less‘relishee by ne Italians than by any other continental nation.

fo)