Page:The Voyage of Italy (1686).djvu/163

Part I. lity and Ladies are seated conveniently in the Amphitheater under the Trees. The rest of this Garden is curiously set forth with Thickets of Bays, close shady Walks, fine high open Walks over-looking both the Town and Country, great Ponds of Water, a World of Statues of Marble and Stone, a rare round Bason of Water, with Fountains, and much wetting sport; the place for Birds and Beasts, the curious Ice-House and cool Cellar under it, where the melting Ice dropping down upon the Barrels of Wine, refresh it so exceedingly, that in all my Life time I never drunk so cool as I did at the Tap in this Cellar. But to return again to the Palace from whence this Garden hath led me; from the Garden we ascended into the Chambers of the Great Dukes Apartment, and found them most sumptuous, both for contrivance and furniture. Some of them are painted overhead by Pietro di Cortona the prime Painter now living: others expect his return again from Rome, and scorn to be painted by any hand but his: in another Chamber we were shown the History of Seleucus, giving to his only Son Antiochus (languishing and pining away with the love of his Mother-in-Law) his own beloved wife Stratonica; shewing by this strange and unique example, that that Paternal Love is greater than Conjugal. All this rarely painted upon the Wall over the Hangings. In another Chamber (the Great Dukes Chamber of Audience) I saw a Suit of Hangings valued at a hundred and fifty thousand Crowns: The Ground of them is Cloth of Gold, upon which

The Duke's Apartiment.

A rare Suit of Hangings.