from “Days spent on a Doge’s farm” of Margaret Symonds
..... the garden is the sole creation of a modern English fancy, and has nothing to do with the old Pisani nobles. They did not use their spare ground thus, but planned it in stiffer style ..... it consisted of square plots of earth, hedged in with box ... It is natural that the strong English instincts of the new Contessa should have made her shudder at the general sunbaked and unsoftned aspect of this huge farm-house .... she needed flowers, as English women do, and shade - above all things, shade - then the roses would grow and the birds would come .... Gradually a new and growing world of green and coloured things arose round the bare walls.