sand, long and palisaded walks, which always afford shade in their sunny land, and they require many fountains, great and small, a crowd of statues, obelisks and bas-reliefs, of which they possess a far greater store than we can show. They do not care a morsel for the keeping up of their gardens, nor for their cleanliness, and they cannot spend much on them. None of their gardens outside the town, not excepting the finest of all, that of Pamphili, which is the most rural and park-like, can compare to St Cloud in charm of rusticity or to Marly in picturesqueness. The best statues in the Ludovisi gardens are those of Silenus and Priapus. .... The Belvedere and the park of the Ludovisi villas are mountains cut into terraces, covered with verdure, containing grottoes and superb cascades. The great fountain in the Belvedere is nearly equal to that of St Cloud; it is one of the finest things of its kind that can be seen. It descends, with a terrific sound of air and water, through pipes arranged expressly to make a perpetual cannonade. Besides this great fountain, there are numerous smaller ones; many in very good taste. The hill of the Belvedere is scooped out into three terraces, ornamented with grottoes and with façades, in rustic architecture, all ornamented with cascades in full play. The great cascade is crowned with columns with twisted flutings, through which the water circulates in spiral lines. The Ludovisi cascade has above it a platform containing a huge fountain basin. The long façades of grottoes, with porticoes, fountains, and statues are beautiful, both here and in the Aldobrandini gardens. In the latter, at the foot of the hill, is a very fine building designed by Porta. The Avenues below are fringed with oranges and palisades of laurel, with balustrades, on which are placed vases full of myrtle and pomegranates.-Letters of Charles de Brosses, translated by Lord Ronald Gower. I www BEGAN to traverse in ecstacy the orchard thus transformed; ROUSSEAU and if I did not find exotics, and plants of Indian growth, (1712-1778). I found those of the country arranged and blended so as to L |