Italian gardens (1907) (14768854415)

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



Text Appearing Before Image:
The thoughtful Baedeker marks it with an asterisk,consequently crowds of tourists, chiefly German, come to gaze and hangover the low wall in ecstasies of voluble delight. That a landscape couldbe improved by a foreground never seems to occur to them, so thefascinating little garden is ignored, not one in a hundred deigning togive it so much as a passing glance. The surface covered by trees in the Boboli Garden is curiouslydisproportionate to the area of the grounds, being fully two-thirds of thewhole. Long straight walks intersect it in all directions, several of theboschetti thus formed being subdivided by minor walks arranged inconcentric circles, one of which is called a labyrinth, though the name isequally applicable to all. By far the most finished and harmonious piece of work in the wholegarden is the Vasca deW Isolotto. It lies in the inner grounds near thePorta Romana and its conception is claimed by Vasari. Encircled by a wall of evergreen oak is an oval pool, some hundred 84
Text Appearing After Image:
pacesJong by seventy wide. An island of the same form, reached fromeither side by bridges, has for a centre-piece Giambolognas celebratedfountain with Oceanus and the rivers Nile, Ganges, and Euphrates,represented by heroic statues. This group is placed above a hugegranite tazza, the pedestal of which is encircled by a seat, and throughthe water which falls from the lip of the basin into a runlet below isshown the garden: a quaint conceit of the fountain-artist. The island makes a most charming private garden, and rejoices in aconstant succession of flowers disposed about it in pots as well as in thebox-bordered beds. At the waterside is a well-designed balustrade,broken into short sections, the stone-work curving downwards tobracketed pedestals on which stand vases with lemon-trees. At the landward end of the bridges are wrought-iron gates placedbetween coupled columns, above which are Capricorns carved in marble;an old device of Cosimo I. who was born under that constellation. Atthe