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Show A ROMAN PLAYGROUND Beautiful Estate of the Villa Borghese Will .Ultimately Become the Property of the Municipality First Laid Out in 1610, (Special Correspondence.) T LAST the fate of the charming and historic villa Borghese at Rome, . which was in doubt for some time, has been settled. set-tled. The Borghese family, fam-ily, once among the proudest and richest among the princely Roman Ro-man families, has become be-come almost swamped by debts, and the villa has been offered for sale. It was threatened expect to see white togaed philosophers philoso-phers emerge from the sylvan shade and hear the sonorous voice of some poet intoning in Latin his latest poem, or would it be too much to hope that, if we penetrate a little farther into the sun-flecked groves, we might find the great Pan himself piping to the flocks? This charming estate was laid out in 1610 by Cardinal Scipione Bot ghese, nephew of Pope Paul V. The palace is now an art museum and contains some of Rome's chief art treasures. The old terrace wall in front of it was removed a few years since to Mr. Astor's villa at Cliveden, England, and is now preserved pre-served only in replica. with the same fate which overtook the Ludovisi estate a few years ago, when the famous property prop-erty passed out of the hands of the ancient family, was cut up into busl- I The Villa Borghese. ness blocks, and was lost in the prosaic pro-saic precincts of new Rome. When the villa Borghese was recently re-cently put up at auction, many, offers were made for parts of the estate, but only the government and the Bank of Italy bid for the entire property, prop-erty, and as the state outbid the bank the villa became government property, proper-ty, and will eventually be presented to the municipality of Rome. The famous villa lies just outside the old northwestern wall of the ctiy. The Pinican hill, with its gardens, is its near neighbor, and will soon be connected with it The principal entrance en-trance is just outside the Porta del Popolo, and a broad avenue arched with trees leads up to the picturesque fountain of Aesculapius and then swings to the right through an arch of Egyptian type, and from thence into the groves and fields beyond. The charms of the villa Borghese are varied. There are open fields included in-cluded in the estate, where in summer sum-mer the haymakers toss the sweet-scented sweet-scented hay; there are pastures where meek-faced cows are grazing, and the visitor from America is reminded re-minded of nothing so much as of some sunny New England farm. But a few rods beyond this the scene changes, and their are gnarled and ancient ilex trees shading moss-grown moss-grown noseless statues. A little farther far-ther on we see the Piazza di Sienna, with its race course and stone seats. Here the huge umbrella pines throw This was not the first time that the villa had suffered from a "foreign invasion." In 1809, during the French occupation, France insisted upon purchasing pur-chasing an important collection ol antique statues. These are now iu the Louvre, the efforts of the Borghese Borg-hese family to secure their restoration restora-tion having been vfV- The est ' is a favorite resort of children, "ivnere are no signs forbidding forbid-ding the babies to roll upon the grass, excepting in the hay fields. Boys may play ball and leapfrog til their hearts' content; they are only warned against putting their dogs in the basins of the fountains! And what a field for the artist! Indeed, for some years, several have lived within the limits of the estate, enjoying enjoy-ing the romantic scenery and the proximity to the city. Now the value of the estate to the public is greatly increased. It will serve as an Ideal spot for the outdoor festivities which form such an important im-portant part of Roman life. In fact, charity entertainments, conducted by noble Roman ladies have frequently been held here, and occasional representations repre-sentations of Roman chariot races have taken place in the Piazza (11 Sienna. These "festas" have been to a certain cer-tain degree exclusive, but henceforth may be enjoyed by the people. The initial popular festival took place on the Sunday following the transfer f the property from the Borghese fain- '"ri -X A' Y I J J I Piazza di Sienna. deep shadows on the green grass; in the distance we catch a glimpse of a tiny circular temple upon a slight elevation and the gleam of a statue beneath a Grecian arch. There is something very fascinating fascinat-ing in all this, a dignified charm, which seems to mark the villa as belonging be-longing to the classic age. We half ily to the state. There were drills by the boys' soldier brigades, bicycle races, and a fine exibition of trained animals. The villa was thronged and every one was light-hearted and happy. The admission fee was ten cents and the proceeds were devoted to the destitute and suffering in Sicily. |