[45] _Caterina Sforza._ By Pier Desiderio Pasolini. Vol. II. p. 321. Firenze, 1893. [46] _Bacchus in Tuscany._ A dithyrambic poem, from the Italian of Francesco Redi, with notes original and select. By Leigh Hunt. London, 1828. [Illustration: VILLA CORSINI AT CASTELLO.] [Illustration: (Drawing of stone plaza sourounded by trees)] VILLA CORSINI AT CASTELLO This villa first belonged to the Strozzi, who sold it to the Rinieri in 1460, when it was called “La Lepre dei Rinieri.” About a century later it was bought by Francesco di Jacopo Sangalletti, whose estates were confiscated by the Medici, and sold to Pagolo Donati in 1597. It again changed hands and at last became the property of Cosimo de’ Medici, son of the Grand Duke Ferdinando I, but finding it useless to have three villas—Petraja, Castello and Rinieri—so close together, he sold the last in 1650 to Piero Cervieri, who died without heirs and left all he possessed to the Jesuits. On the suppression of their Order the villa was bought by the Lanfredini, from whom it passed into the possession of the great house of Corsini, who enlarged and altered it, probably from the designs of Antonio Ferri, the same architect who built the large saloon, the fine staircase and the façade of the Corsini palace on the Lung’ Arno in Florence. Villa Corsini stands at the foot of the royal villa La Petraja. It is a rather stately baroque edifice, with a large square courtyard in the centre; and though but little raised above the plain, the view of Florence from the south side of the garden is lovely. On the north is a typical Italian pleasaunce, where narrow paths meander under the deep shade of tall ilexes, oaks and fir trees; grey stone columns and balustrades surround small squares and circles of ground, as though it had been once parcelled out among the children of the house. A fountain represents a prancing seahorse who is unceasingly occupied in keeping a huge sarcophagus, entirely overgrown with maiden-hair fern, always brimful of water. Standing by the splashing fountain we get a beautiful glimpse of Petraja through the trees, standing high up on the hill behind. Prince Corsini told me the fine ilexes at Narford Hall were raised from acorns off these trees; the much-travelled Sir Andrew Fountaine, who resided for some time in Florence, and probably bought a good deal of his celebrated collection of Italian pottery from the Grand Duke Cosimo III,[47] was an intimate friend of Prince Corsini who sent a bagful of acorns to Narford. A present feature of the garden of the Villa Corsini is a shady avenue of ilexes which leads to the stable and was planted only fifty years ago.