a recent issue of Spadework - Cardiganshire Horticultural Society

The latter was in the pursuit of what Ms Attlee called ‘lighthearted
amusement’, her descriptions of which bore distinct
resemblance to Saturday night in a university town. There was the
poly-priapic pool of Villa Mondragone, with prone copper-topped
leathern hosepipes that unexpectedly rose, filled with water.
Charles de Brosses in the mid 18th century recounted frolicking in
the pool with his travelling companions, before repairing to the
Villa Aldobrandini after changing their clothes. Here they again
indulged in aqueous high jinks after failing to notice ‘a hundred
treacherous little jets’ of water concealed in the stonework of a
flight of steps that turned into a cascade – rendering themselves
miserably short of dry clothes and having to eat a ‘vile supper’ in
their dressing-gowns. At least they had something to eat:
contemporaneous accounts of Flavo Chiggi’s mysterious nocturnal
banquet at Quatro Fontane near Rome left his guests thirsty and
hungry. However Ms Attlee deemed them entirely satisfied with
being tantalised by a sumptuous spun-sugar banquet dissolving in
front of their eyes and exquisitely laid tables that disappeared in a
clap of thunder and a cloud of confetti and rosewater. I couldn’t
help wondering whether Chiggi had dared to ask the A-list. Would
it be foolish to treat a Medici so? In addition to the notorious side
of their culinary skills, the Medicis boasted a fine ‘birding’ garden,
where mist-nets caught song-birds ready for guests to skip about
plucking them for the pot. Their contributions to guest-impressing
also included a sea battle fought in their flooded palace courtyard.
Francesco Barberini would not only have impressed, but also
inspired his contemporaries who were likewise immersed in
botanic science.Among those whom he welcomed into the more
sequestered parts of Orto Barberini was Giovanni Battista Ferrari,
whose horticultural work Flora de florum cultura (1633) Barberini
patronised. The seven-volume Flora covered every aspect of
gardening: including how to manipulate colour and scent in
flowers, how to make crinkly petals and even the desired
characteristics for a garden guard dog: ‘viligant, sinewy, robust, a
dog with no time for strangers and no ear for flattery.’ There was a
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