The Savannah morning news., 1900-07-23
GARDENS OF THE VATICAN.
Everything Within the Walls, In
Guiding the Men, Is Old.

Rome Letter in the Argonaut.
More interesting to me than visits to
the Vatican are visits to the Vatican gar.
dens. For a number of years the gar
dens have been closed to the public. The
guidebooks say nothing of them, the pho
toEraphers have no views of them on
sale. Therefore, when we learned that
the NauCer gardens were to be tempo
rarily thrown open to the pilgrims, we
FASTENED thither. for we are pilgrims, too.
We found to our delight that the other
pilgrims apparently had not yet learned
of it, for the gardens were practically de-
serted.
For an hour we wandered through them
and met no manor woman, either, as
Hamlet says-save two or three aged gar
deuers. For all things in the Vatican
gardens, even the gardeners. seem TO be
old. The gardens are not many acres in
extent. but they seem much larger than
they really are. The walks and drives are
laid out with much skill and are shut Off
b. lofty lockwood hedges. 1t is possible,
therefore. to wander for a long distan Re
without retracing ones steps. The gar.
dens are a quaint and pleasing mixture
of primness and wildness. immedia tely
al the entrance you find some acres of
flower-beds, laid out in the stiffest style
4
ing this in winding walk which climbs
a hill you are speedily lost in forest
of trees which shuts off the view COM
pletely. Here you might believe yourself
far from a city were IL not that you dis
tmCtly hear the muffied roar of Rome.
Under the dense shade of these ancient
trees are old fountains, old statues, old
arches, old columns-everything is moss
grown nnd old. Ferns grow luxuriantly
in this dense and humid shade-<leicate
maidens-hair as well as the more hardy
brakes.
The hillside climbed. we come out OF the
shade and into the sun. On the sunny
side of the hill there is a small vineyard.
a small orchard, a small poultry yard. n
small deer park and q small ostrich pen.
Here there are several pavilions. or sum-
mer houses. which the Pope at times &C.
cupies arc from which magnificent Views
may be had of Rome and the Campagna
At this point one of the venerable gar
deners approached us, and with much i'm
pressiveness leo us to a summer house and
showed us a peephole. through which We
could see the very chair in which the Holy
Fathe~ had sat. Price, twenty cents. But
the gardener was an amusing old soul
and seeing a chance of another tip, he
escorted us around the ranch for the
mixture of orchard vineyard and poultry
ward inevitably suggested that term. Here
we encountered two tourist priests. who,
seeing that the gardener was acting as
cicerone Immediately followed and listen
ed to his prattle. For half an hour they
stuck to US, disappearing only when the
time came to settle. when they swiftly
vanished They were dark browed, dark-
complexioned fellows. and uttered no
sound as they staked behind US with
their black skirts Tapping around their
sturdy legs I wondered whether they
could be Italians. The dialogue between
the gardener and myself was OF nature
to make Arlosto weep and Tasso greve. l
am not strong in Italian I can make my
self undo rstood in II, but l speak English
much better II those priests were Itai-
ian shu6der when I think of that dia-
logue. But II they were Italian and could
listen to II with gravity l greatly admire
their self-control.
The old gardener parted with us with
regret after having sold us some cuttings
from plants. His regret was over not
asking more. He was a nice old man,
but trine mercenary. Most Of the Vati-
can servants are.
When we left the old gardener we start
ID to return by what we thought to he
the same route. but Il led us into an en-
tirely different part Of the grounds. Here
we climbed a hill which was the highest
in the gardens think that we must
have been on he top OF Mons Vaucanus.
At our feet lay the vast pile OF buildings