An Italian terraced garden
A Renaissance garden on a hillside, after the Villa d’Este at Tivoli and the Villa Lante at Bagnaia: the villa at the top, terraces held by balustraded retaining walls, stairs on the axis, a water chain running down a ramp, fountains, box-edged compartments, a round of cypresses, a giardino segreto beside the house and a grotto in a retaining wall.
The rules it illustrates
The villa garden: porticoes, grottoes, evergreens in rows. Give the villa garden porticoes for sun and for shade, grottoes made in imitation of nature with tufa and shells, evergreens planted in straight rows at equal distances, and hedges of box; set vines on columns over the walks.
Terraces on the axis of the villa. On a hillside, cut the garden into level terraces held by retaining walls, join them by stairs and ramps on a single axis that runs from the house, and lead water down the axis from level to level.
The water chain. Bring water down a slope in a stepped stone channel whose scrolled sides break it into ripples and small falls, on the axis of the garden, so that the water itself becomes an ornament as it descends.
Where it appears in the book
In the styles Italian Renaissance garden.
In the chapters Gardens and Landscape.