CECILY DORAN Villa Sannazaro had no architectural beauty; it was a building of considerable size, irregular, in need of external repair.

Through the middle of it ran a great archway, guarded by copies of the two Molossian hounds which stand before the Hall of Animals in the Vatican; beneath the arch, on the right-hand side, was the main entrance to the house.

If you passed straight through, you came out upon a terrace, where grew a magnificent stone-pine and some robust agaves.

The view hence was uninterrupted, embracing the line of the bay from Posillipo to Cape Minerva.

From the parapet bordering the platform you looked over a descent of twenty feet, into a downward sloping vineyard.
Formerly the residence of an old Neapolitan family, the villa had gone the way of many such ancestral abodes, and was now let out among several tenants.
The Spences were established here for the winter.