So numerous and well preserved are the buildings

19



ITALIAN VILLAS

of this order about Florence that the student who should
attempt to give an account of them would have before
him a long and laborious undertaking ; but where the
villa is to be considered in relation to its garden, the
task is reduced to narrow limits. There is perhaps no
region of Italy so rich in old villas and so lacking in old




VILLA GAMBERAIA, AT SETTIGNANO, NEAR FLORENCE



gardens as the neighbourhood of Florence. Various
causes have brought about this result. The environs
of Florence have always been frequented by the wealthy
classes, not only Italian but foreign. The Tuscan
nobility have usually been rich enough to alter their
gardens in accordance with the varying horticultural

20



FLORENTINE VILLAS

fashions imported from England and France ; and the
EngHsh who have colonized in such numbers the slopes
above the Arno have contributed not a little to the
destruction of the old gardens by introducing into their
horticultural plans two features entirely alien to the
Tuscan climate and soil, namely, lawns and deciduous
shade-trees.
