ister Fates!
Too long unclos'd have stood those dreary Gates!

What the author said of the monument, you will be tempted to say of
this letter, which I shall therefore close in the old stile, assuring
you that I ever am,--Yours most affectionately.

LETTER XXXI

NICE, March 5, 1765

DEAR SIR,--In my last I gave you my opinion freely of the modern
palaces of Italy. I shall now hazard my thoughts upon the gardens of
this country, which the inhabitants extol with all the hyperboles of
admiration and applause. I must acknowledge however, I have not seen
the famous villas at Frascati and Tivoli, which are celebrated for
their gardens and waterworks. I intended to visit these places; but was
prevented by an unexpected change of weather, which deterred me from
going to the country. On the last day of September the mountains of
Palestrina were covered with snow; and the air became so cold at Rome,
that I was forced to put on my winter cloaths. This objection
continued, till I found it necessary to set out on my return to
Florence. But I have seen the gardens of the Poggio Imperiale, and the
Palazzo de Pitti at Florence, and those of the Vatican, of the pope's
palace on Monte Cavallo, of the Villa Ludovisia, Medicea, and Pinciana,
at Rome; so that I think I have some right to judge of the Italian
taste in gardening. Among those I have mentioned, that of the Villa
Pinciana, is the most remarkable, and the most extensive, including a
space of three miles in circuit, hard by the walls of Rome, containing
a variety of situations high and low, which favour all the natural
embellishments one would expect to meet with in a garden, and exhibit a
diversity of noble views of the city and adjacent country.

In a fine extensive garden or park, an Englishman expects to see a
number of groves and glades, intermixed with an agreeable negligence,
which seems to be the effect of nature and accident. He looks for shady
walks encrusted with gravel; for open lawns covered with verdure as
smooth as velvet, but much more lively and agreeable; for ponds,
canals, basins, cascades, and running streams of water; for clumps of
trees, woods, and wildernesses, cut into delightful alleys, perfumed
with honeysuckle and sweet-briar, and resounding with the mingled
melody of all the singing birds of heaven: he looks for plats of
flowers in different parts to refresh the sense, and please the fancy;
for arbours, grottos, hermitages, temples, and alco