This favourite house of Ariosto's was situated near the church of S.
Benedetto, and stood in the midst of a spacious garden which formed both
his pride and delight. Here he continued to compose additional cantos to
the 'Orlando Furioso,' and occasionally, to relax his mind with lighter
species of poetry, sometimes writing a satire, and at others reverting
to the comedies composed in his younger years, and which he subsequently
made fit for the stage."

He again quitted Ferrara, on an appointment "by Alphonso, but again soon
returned:--

"On his return he established himself, with his two unmarried sisters,
in the house he had built near the church of Saint Benedict, and resumed
his former occupations. Of his lighter amusements, gardening was that
in which he took most pleasure; and it is curious to know that he was
as fond of altering the plan of both his house and grounds, as he was
of remodelling the stanzas of the Orlando. His son, Virginio proposed
writing an account of his illustrious father's life; but unfortunately,
he never pursued his design beyond the commencement, and a few
memorandums are all that have come down to us. From these, however,
we learn the singular fastidiousness of Ariosto in his horticultural
amusements, and some other traits of his character, which render him not
the less an object of our veneration, by showing us the simplicity as
well as power of his mind. 'In gardening,' says Virginio, 'he pursued
the same plan as with his verses, never leaving any thing he had planted
more than three months in the same place: and, if he set a fruit-tree,
or sowed seed of any kind, he would go so often to examine it, and see
if it were growing, that he generally ended with spoiling or breaking
off the bud.'