Italian gardens (1907) (14582201189)

Identifier: cu31924064158870 (find matches)
Title: Italian gardens
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Elgood, George Samuel, 1851-
Subjects: Gardens
Publisher: London, New York, Bombay & Calcutta : Longmans, Green and Co.
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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strip of ground, some hundred yards in width,which runs in a straight line across a shallow valley. The podere whichcloses them in on every side is to a great extent shut off by high hedgesof sweet bay. The flower-garden is no longer laid out in the old style, the box-work parterre having been replaced by grass with beds of flowers andflowering shrubs arranged about it, with a few taller trees scattered overthe lawn, slim peach and almond trees contrasting pleasantly with thedenser foliage of nespoli. At the end of the parterre is a slight drop in the level, marked by awall and short flights of stairs. Beyond that is a great circular plateauenclosed by a low broad-topped wall, upon which pots of lemon, oleander,azalea, and all kinds of flowers are ranged at convenient height.From openings to the right and left, guarded by terminal figures,pleached alleys of bay lead away far into the cultivated land. In themiddle of this terrace is an unusually large fountain-basin, or pescbiera ; 40
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its centre is marked by a great cockle-shell, in which an amorino sits con-tentedly splashing and playing the live-long day amidst the gold-fish.These little unsophisticated fountain-figures are always a delight, and addmuch to the colour and life of a garden. To this fountain, as eveningfell, came the contadini to water their cattle, great slow-moving, sleepy-looking creatures. One lad in drab shirt, and knee-breeches made ofgoat-skins, like some good-looking young satyr, would perchance lingerin the twilight till you half expected to see some nymph appear from thefountain to welcome him. The architectural features of the garden, though well enough plannedand eminently well fitted to the lie of the ground, are, like S9 much ofthe later baroque, poor in detail and sadly deficient in mouldings. Butthis weakness is to a great extent atoned for by the clever way in whichan exceptionally interesting lot of antique marbles have been handled.These are not disposed around the villa as if it