99. Of the present state of gardening in Italy, as an art of design, we shall submit a slight sketch, partly from modern travellers, and partly from our own inspection. The grand objects of an Italian nobleman are to produce a huge pile of architecture, externally splendid, and to collect a gallery of pictures and statues. The furnishing of this pile for domestic use, or even the internal finishing of great part of it, he cares little about; and the parks or gardens are inferior objects of attention. The Romans, when at the highest point of power, seem to have had exactly the same taste; as may be gathered from their writings, and seen in the existing ruins of the Villa Adriana, near Tivoli (fig. 8. p. 18.), and many others.
