and some, with an air of
patient expectancy, turn their heads towards an "osteria cacinante"
opposite, knowing that so soon as their drover has finished his own
cold broccoli breakfast, he will come out to accompany them into Rome
to _disperse_ theirs. And now we are within the _enceinte_ of the
Borghese grounds, have passed the good-humoured _custode_ at the gate,
responded a hearty "_da vero_," to the "_che bella qiornata_" with
which we are greeted, tarried for an instant by the little pond to the
left, and heard the Babylonian willow susurrate the same salutation to
the water under its boughs, and then make for, and soon reach, the
large ever-spouting fountain which is scattering its comminuted
water-dust far and near, and bathes our cheek refreshingly as we pass
it: and now we are at the Borghese dairy, and now by Raphael's little
frescoed house, untenanted within, and with a solitary robin, the
_custode_ of the porch; but at the back premises we come upon an
artist in a blouse making a sketch. He could not have chosen a more
picturesque spot than this any where in the park: for _foreqround_, a
beautiful green sward, well dotted with recumbent and standing cows,
and interspersed with masses of acanthus-crowned ruin; and for the
_back_, the graceful sweep of the old gray Roman walls, with the Villa
Medici and the Pincian hill peering just above. Fain would we carry
away some such souvenir; but as nature or our misfortune forbid this,
our endeavour shall be to supply its place, however inadequately, by
dotting down a few words of description of one or two of the principal
trees, which here so greatly embellish the view.

The Ilex, interesting alike from its appearance and physiology, first
engages our notice. Compact and solid while yet a shrub, (for hers is
indeed an _old_ head upon _young_ shoulders,) she grows like a tree
that is to count by centuries, and under no advantage of soil or
situation does her sober aspect change; no premature overgrowth was
ever known to weaken her fibres, those _tetes mortees_; the Lombardy
poplars there, whose only merit is their height, may shoot up ever so
tauntingly, for aught she cares, at her elbow; her ambition is not
like that of the stately pines, to nurse a noisy aviary on high; nor
does she seek to rival the fair sisterhood of the Acacias in the
youthful vanity of overdecking her person; one dark-coloured
investment lasts her, and remains unchanged the whole year through.