Beyond is the famous foun-tained court, and a
classic temple to the right, and other structures responsive to the
impulses of the good Pope Julius III., who was never tired of adding to
this pleasure palace of his. It was his favorite resort, with all his
court, from the Vatican, and his favorite amusement in it was the
somewhat academic diversion of proverbs, which Ranke says sometimes
"mingled blushes with the smiles of his guests."
Lest the reader should think I have gone direct to Ranke for this
knowledge, I will own that I got it at second-hand out of Hare's _Walks
in Rome,_ where he tells us also that the pope used to come to his villa
every day by water, and that "the richly decorated barge, filled with
venerable ecclesiastics, gliding through the osier-fringed banks of the
Tiber, . . . would make a fine subject for a picture." No doubt, and if
I owned such a picture I would lose no time in public-spiritedly
bestowing it on the first needy gallery. Our author is, as usual,
terribly severe on the Italian government for some wrong done the villa,
I could not well make out what.
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