of domestic erections. For this
reason, though we shall notice every class of edifice, it does not come
within our proposed plan, to enter into any detailed consideration of
the inferior buildings of each class, which afford no scope for the play
of the imagination by their nature or size; but we shall generally
select the most perfect and beautiful examples, as those in which alone
the architect has the power of fulfilling the high purposes of his art.
In the villa, however, some exception must be made, inasmuch as it will
be useful, and perhaps interesting, to arrive at some fixed conclusions
respecting the modern buildings, improperly called villas, raised by
moderate wealth, and of limited size, in which the architect is
compelled to produce his effect without extent or decoration. The
principles which we have hitherto arrived at, deduced as they are from
edifices of the noblest character, will be but of little use to a
country gentleman, about to insinuate himself and his habitation into a
quiet corner of our lovely country; and, therefore, we must glance at
the more humble homes of the Italian, preparatory to the consideration
of what will best suit our own less elevated scenery.

[Footnote 21: [Compare "The Seven Lamps of Architecture," chap. i. Sec.
1.]]

135. First, then, we lose the terraced approach, or, at least, its size
and splendor, as these require great wealth to erect them, and perpetual
expense to preserve them. For the chain of terraces we find substituted
a simple garden, somewhat formally laid out; but redeemed from the
charge of meanness by the nobility and size attained by most of its
trees; the line of immense cypresses which generally surrounds it in
part, and the luxuriance of the vegetation of its flowering shrubs. It
has frequently a large entrance gate, well designed, but carelessly
executed; sometimes singularly adorned with fragments of ancient
sculpture, regularly introduced, which the spectator partly laments, as
preserved in a mode so incongruous with their ancient meaning, and
partly rejoices over, as preserved at all. The grottoes of the superior
garden are here replaced by light ranges of arched summerhouses,
designed in stucco, and occasionally adorned in their interior with
fresco paintings of considerable brightness and beauty.

136. All this, however, has very little effect in introducing the eye to
the villa itself, owing to the general want of inequality of level in
the gr