Chapter XIX: Part 19

Within a paved court is an altar, of a round shape, on the one side, and on the other side a well. A cistern, with four apertures, was placed at a small distance, to facilitate the procuring of water. In this court, sacrifices and other holy rites are conjectured to have taken place, various utensils for sacrifice, such as lamps, tripods, &c., having been found, when the place was first excavated. One of the tripods is of the most admirable workmanship. On each of the three legs, a beautiful sphinx, with an unusual head-dress, is placed, probably in allusion to the hidden meanings of the oracles which were delivered in the above-mentioned temple. The hoop in which the basin for the coals was sunk, is elegantly decorated with rams’ heads connected by garlands of flowers; and within the basin, which is of baked earth, the very cinders left from the last sacrifice (nearly two thousand years ago) are seen as fresh as if they had been the remains of yesterday’s fire!

From the above court, you enter on a somewhat larger, with a stone pulpit in the center and stone seats near the walls. The spot, therefore, was either the auditory of a philosopher, or the place where the public orators pleaded in the presence of the people. Everything here is in the highest order and preservation.

The great amphitheater proudly rears its walls over every other edifice on the same elevated spot. It is a stupendous structure, and has twenty-four rows of seats, the circumference of the lowest of which is about seven hundred and fifty feet. It is estimated to have contained about thirty thousand spectators. The upper walls are much injured, having partially projected above ground long before the discovery of Pompeii.

A corn-field leads to the excavated upper end of the high street, which consists of a narrow road for carts, with foot-pavements on each side. The middle is paved with large blocks of marble, and the ruts of the wheels proclaim its antiquity, even at the time of its being overwhelmed. The foot-paths are elevated about a foot and a half from the level of the carriage-road. The houses on each side, whether shops or private buildings, have no claim to external elegance: they consist of a ground-floor only, and, with the exception of the door, have no opening toward the street. The windows of the private houses look into an inner square court, and are in general very high. The apartments themselves are, with the exception of one in each house, which probably served as a drawing-room, both low and diminutive. In point of decoration they are neat, and, in many instances, elegant: the floors generally consist of figured pavements, either in larger stones of various colors, regularly cut and systematically disposed, or are formed of a beautiful mosaic, with a fanciful border, and an animal or figure in the center. The geometrical lines and figures in the design of the borders, have an endless variety of the most pleasing shapes, to display the fertile imagination of the artists. Their tesselated pavements alone must convince us that the ancients were well skilled in geometry. The ground is usually white, and the ornaments black; but other colors are often employed with increased effect.

The walls of the apartments are equally (if not still more) deserving attention. They are painted, either in compartments, exhibiting some mythological or historical event, or simply colored over with a light ground, adorned with a border and perhaps an elegant little vignette, in the center or at equal distances. But few of the historical paintings now exist in Pompeii; for wherever a wall was found to contain a tolerable picture, it was removed and deposited in the museum at Naples. To effect this, the greatest care and ingenuity were required, so as to peel off, by the means of sawing pieces of wall, twenty and more square feet in extent, without destroying the picture. This, however, was not a modern invention; for, among the excavated remains of Stabiæ, the workmen came to an apartment containing paintings which had been separated by the ancients themselves from a wall, with the obvious intent of their being introduced in another place. This was, however, prevented by the ruin of the city; and the paintings, therefore, were found leaning against the wall of the apartment.

Another excavated portion of Pompeii is likewise part of a street, and, being perfectly in a line with the one already described, is conjectured to be a continuation, or rather the extremity of the latter; in which case Pompeii must have been a city of considerable importance, and its main street nearly a mile in length. The houses here, as in the other instance, are distributed into shops and private dwellings, some of the latter of which are distinguished by the remains of former internal elegance, such as tesselated pavements, painted walls, &c.: most of them have likewise an interior court, surrounded by apartments.

THE MUSEUM AT NAPLES.

The museum was formerly at Portici, but was removed to Naples some years ago and is now called the Musæo Borbonico. The best statues, busts, vases, and in short, whatever was supposed, from its materials or construction, to have a superior value, were packed in fifty-two chests, and conveyed from Portici to Palermo, at the time the court sought refuge in that city, on the French penetrating into the Neapolitan territory. What still remains, however, in the museum, has a high intrinsic value; since no one can behold, without the strongest emotions of admiration, the relics of the most transitory things, which for nearly eighteen hundred years, have braved the ravages of time. Here are to be seen bread, corn, dough which was about to be placed in the oven, soap which had been used for washing, figs, and even egg-shells perfectly white, and in as good a state as if the cook had broken them an hour before. Here a kitchen presents itself provided with everything requisite: trivets and pots stand on the hearth; stew-pans hang on the wall; skimmers and tongs are placed in the corner; and a metal mortar rests on the shaft of a pillar. Weights, hammers, scythes, and other utensils of husbandry, are here blended with helms and arms. Sacrificing bowls and knives; a number of well shaped glasses; large and small glass bottles; lamps; vases; decorations for furniture; a piece of cloth; nets; and even shoe soles; all sorts of female ornaments—necklaces, rings and ear-rings; a wooden chess-board, reduced, indeed, to a cinder: all these things are more or less injured by the fire; but still are distinguishable at first sight.

Every apartment of the museum is laid with the most charming antique floors, which are partly mosaic, from Pompeii, and partly marble, from Herculaneum. Statues, vases, busts, chandeliers, altars, tables of marble and bronze, are all in as good a state as if they had just come from the hands of the artist. The coins which have been collected are very numerous, and fill several cases. Medallions of marble, containing on each side a bas-relief, are suspended by fine chains from the ceiling of one of the apartments, and are within the reach of the hand, so as to be conveniently turned and examined.

Most of the pictures found at Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiæ, and now deposited in the museum, have been sawed from the walls of the edifices they adorned. These unique relics of ancient art form an extensive gallery of genuine antique pictures, the only one in the world, and may on that account alone, be considered as an invaluable treasure. They are placed in a range of apartments on the ground floor, and are suspended against the walls in plain frames. Their size varies from a foot square, to whole-length groups, nearly as large as life. Beside the injury they have sustained by having been exposed to the heat of burning cinders, they have been impaired by the modern varnish which was intended to protect them: it would, therefore, not be right to subject their coloring to the rigid rules of art; but the grouping of the Minotaur, of the Telephus, of the sitting Orestes, and of the Bacchus and Ariadne, is admirable. In their paintings, as well as in their sculptures, the ancients were influenced by that love of simplicity which distinguishes their works from those of the moderns, and the result is, that in them the chief merits of composition are combined, unity of subject, and unity of interest. When, again, it is considered that the paintings collected in the museum at Naples were taken from the provincial towns, it must be inferred, that those which were admitted in the chief seats of art corresponded in excellence with the Laocoön and the Apollo. Such, at least, was the judgment of the ancients themselves, and their taste is not to be disputed.

The museum at Naples excels all others in ancient bronze, a substance which, although dearer, more difficult to be wrought, more inviting to the rude grasp of avarice, and less beautiful than marble, forms the greater proportion of the statues. The larger of them had been originally composed of pieces connected by dove-tail joints; and these promiscuous fragments have been recompiled into new figures, as in the instance of the single horse made from four, in the center of the court-yard of the museum. Those fragments which had escaped fusion, were rent, inflated, or bruised, by the burning lava. In addition to these misfortunes, they have been made up unhappily; for the eye of an artist can sometimes detect two styles of art, evidently different, the large and the exquisite, soldered together in the same statue. The figures the most admired are, the drunken Faun, the sleeping Faun, the sitting Mercury, the Amazon adjusting her robe, and an Augustus and a Claudius, both of heroic size.

The most remarkable objects in the museum at Naples are the manuscripts, found in two chambers of a house at Herculaneum. Although they have been so frequently described, they must be seen, to furnish a correct idea of them. Before they are unrolled, they resemble sticks of charcoal, or cudgels reduced to the state of a cinder, and partly petrified. Their general appearance before they are unrolled may be seen on the previous page. In color they are black and chesnut-brown: and they are unfortunately so decayed, that under each of them, as they lie in glass cases, a quantity of dust and detached fragments may be perceived. Their characters are legible in a certain light only, by a gloss and relief which distinguishes the ink, or rather black paint, from the tinder. Cut, crushed, crumbled on the edge, and caked by the sap remaining in the leaves of the papyrus, they require in the operator great sagacity to meet the variety of injuries they have received; since, in gluing rashly the more delicate parts, he might reach the heart of a volume, while working at the outside. At first, it appeared almost impracticable ever to decipher a syllable of them; but to the industry and talents of man nothing is impossible, and his curiosity impels him to the most ingenious inventions.

HERCULANEUM.

This city was, together with Pompeii and Stabiæ, involved in the common ruin occasioned by the dreadful eruption of Vesuvius, in the reign of Titus, which has already been described in our previous pages.

It was situated on a point of land stretching into the gulf of Naples, about two miles distant from that city, near where the modern towns of Portici and Resini, and the royal palace, by which they are separated, now stand. The neck of land on which it was built, and which has since disappeared, formed a small harbor. Hence the appellation of =Herculis Porticum=, (the small haven of Hercules,) sometimes given to Herculaneum, and thence in all probability, the modern name of Portici.

The latter being situated immediately above some of the excavations of Herculaneum, the just fear of endangering its safety, by undermining it, is given as a principal reason why so little progress has been made in the Herculanean researches.

The discovery of Herculaneum is thus explained. At an inconsiderable distance from the royal palace of Portici, and close to the seaside, Prince Elbeuf, in the beginning of the last century, inhabited an elegant villa. To obtain a supply of water a well was dug, in the year 1730, through the deep crust of lava on which the mansion itself had been reared. The laborers, after having completely pierced through the lava, which was of considerable depth, came to a stratum of dry mud. This event precisely agrees with the tradition relative to Herculaneum, that it was in the first instance overwhelmed by a stratum of hot mud, which was immediately followed by a wide stream of lava. Whether this mud was thrown up from Vesuvius, or formed by torrents of rain, does not appear to have been decided. Within the stratum the workmen found three female statues, which were sent to Vienna.

It was not until some years after this, that the researches at Herculaneum were seriously and systematically pursued. By continuing Elbeuf’s well, the excavators at once came to the theater, and from that spot carried on their further subterraneous investigation. The condition of Herculaneum was at that time much more interesting, and more worthy the notice of the traveler, than it is at present. The object of its excavation having unfortunately been confined to the discovery of statues, paintings, and other curiosities, and not carried on with a view to lay open the city, and thus to ascertain the features of its buildings and streets, most of the latter were again filled up with rubbish as soon as they were divested of everything movable. The marble even was torn from the walls of the temples. Herculaneum may therefore be said to have been overwhelmed a second time by its modern discoverers; and the appearance it previously presented, can now only be ascertained from the accounts of those who saw it in a more perfect state. Agreeably to them, it must at that time have afforded a most interesting spectacle.

The theater was one of the most perfect specimens of ancient architecture. It had, from the floor upward, eighteen rows of seats, and above these, three other rows, which, being covered with a portico, seem to have been intended for the female part of the audience, to screen them from the rays of the sun. It was capable of containing between three and four thousand persons. Nearly the whole of its surface, as well as the arched walls which led to its seats, was cased with marble. The area, or pit, was floored with thick squares of =giallo antico=, a beautiful marble of a yellowish hue. On the top stood a group of four bronze horses, drawing a car, with a charioteer, all of exquisite workmanship. The pedestal of white marble is still to be seen in its place; but the group itself had been crushed and broken in pieces by the immense weight of lava which fell on it. The fragments having been collected, might easily have been brought together again, but having been carelessly thrown into a corner, a part of them were stolen, and another portion fused, and converted into busts of their Neapolitan majesties. At length, it was resolved to make the best use of what remained, that is, to convert the four horses into one, by taking a fore leg of one of them, a hinder leg of another, the head of a third, &c., and, where the breach was irremediable, to cast a new piece. To this contrivance the bronze horse now shown in the museum of Naples owes its existence; and, considering its patchwork origin, it still conveys a high idea of the skill of the ancient artist.

In the forum, which was contiguous to the theater, beside a number of inscriptions, columns, &c., two beautiful equestrian statues of the Balbi family were found. These were of white marble, and were deposited in the hall of the left wing of the palace at Portici. Adjoining to the forum stood the temple of Hercules, an elegant rotunda, the interior of which was decorated with a variety of paintings, such as Theseus returning from his Cretan adventure with the Minotaur, Telephus’s birth, Chiron, the centaur, instructing Achilles, &c. These were carefully separated from the walls, and are deposited in the museum at Naples.

The most important discovery, however, was that of a villa, at a small distance from the forum; not only on account of the peculiarity of its plan, but because the greater number of the works of art were dug out of its precinct; and more especially because it contained a library consisting of more than fifteen hundred volumes, which are likewise safely deposited in the museum, and which, were they legible, would form a great classic treasure. These have been mentioned in the account of the museum at Naples, which will be found on a previous page. The villa is conjectured to have belonged to one of the Balbi family. Although elegant, it was small, and consisted of a ground-floor only, like those of Pompeii. Beside a number of small closets round an interior hall, it contained a bathing-room, curiously fitted up with marble and water-pipes, and a chapel of a diminutive size, without any window or aperture for daylight, the walls of which were painted with serpents, and within which a bronze tripod, filled with cinders and ashes, was found standing on the floor. The apartment which contained the library was fitted up with wooden presses around the walls, about six feet in hight: a double row of presses stood insulated in the middle of the room, so as to admit a free passage on every side. The wood of which the presses had been made, was burned to a cinder, and gave way at the first touch; but the volumes, composed of a much more perishable substance, the Egyptian or Syracusan papyrus, were, although completely carbonized through the effect of the heat, still so far preserved as to admit of their removal to a similar set of modern presses, (provided, however, with glass doors,) in the museum.

In the middle of the garden belonging to this villa, was a large basin, having its edges faced with stone, and the two narrow ends rounded off in a semicircular form. This piece of water was surrounded by beds or parterres of various shapes; and the garden was on every side inclosed by a covered walk supported by columns. Of these columns there were sixty-four, ten for each of the shorter, and twenty-two for each of the longer sides of the quadrangle: they were made of brick, neatly stuccoed over, exactly similar to those in the Pompeian barracks. Each pillar supported one end of a wooden beam, the other extremity of which rested on the garden wall, thus forming an arbor, in all probability planted with vines around the whole garden. Under this covered walk, several semicircular recesses, which appear to have served as bathing-places, were built. The spaces between the pillars were decorated with marble busts and bronze statues, alternately arranged. This garden was surrounded by a narrow ditch; and another covered walk, of a considerable length, led to a circular balcony, or platform, the ascent to which was by four steps, but which overhung the sea about fifteen feet. The floor of the balcony consisted of a very beautiful tesselated pavement. From this charming spot the prospect over the whole bay of Naples, including the mountains of Sorrento, the island of Capri, and Mount Posilipo, must have been delightful.

POMPEII.

Having thus given the accounts of Kotzebue, and also of an English tourist, as to Pompeii and Herculaneum, we will now add the narrative of our distinguished fellow-citizen, Professor Silliman, who passed over the same ground in 1851. All these views are given, because the subject is one of so much intrinsic interest, and because some objects are mentioned by each writer that are not by the others. Professor Silliman says: “We passed rapidly along through Portici, Resina, and Torre del Greco,[6] which form one long-continued street, lying over Herculaneum, a large city, whose entombed remains were far beneath our carriage wheels. Vesuvius was on our left, quiet and sublime. Clouds vailed its crater from our view, but its venerable sides were enveloped in the black drapery of its own lava floods. The currents have often flowed over the road on which we were traveling. Here and there, the lava had been cut through in the streets, and it protrudes in black, rocky masses, upon which many of the houses have been erected. Lava formed the walls of the houses, and the fences around the fields, and lava, only lava, was everywhere around us. After a short interval of cultivated fields, we arrived in Torre del Annunciata, in a street similar to those we had passed, and surrounded by a country in the highest state of cultivation, where every foot of the rich volcanic soil is made available. Farm-houses and villas appeared clustering around the eastern and southern foot of Vesuvius, and creeping up its sloping sides, so reckless are the people of past catastrophes, although Herculaneum reposes in its profound grave at the foot of the mountain, and the great sepulcher of Pompeii, with its funereal monuments, is in full view before them. They have also been very recently warned again, by the terrific eruption of February, 1850, which, bursting out back of Vesuvius, on the east, took an unwonted direction, thus giving another proof that no situation on or near the mountain is safe; but still the inhabitants repose in careless security.

-----

Footnote 6:

“Torre del Greco, a town containing eighteen thousand people, was
overwhelmed, in 1794, by an eruption of lava from Vesuvius, flowing
from the middle of its western slope, only five miles above the town.
The melted torrent buried the place, and inundated the sea,
encroaching upon it one-third of a square mile.”

-----

“As we drove slowly onward, checking the horses from time to time, in order to realize the scenes around us, Antonio, from the coach-box, suddenly exclaimed, ‘There is Pompeii!’ We eagerly looked, and saw a low, green ridge of land, covered by grass and shrubs. It appeared as an extended mound, over which the traveler might have driven, as thousands have heedlessly done in centuries past, unconscious that a city of the dead slumbered beneath the hoofs of the horses. Only a few minutes elapsed, before standing erect in the carriage, we discerned the still naked heaps of pumice that have been thrown out during the excavations; and immediately after, in breathless silence, we were at the door of the house of Diomede! An elegant country-house, a Roman villa, just outside of the walls of the city, still stands, almost eighteen hundred years after the great catastrophe. Its columns are erect, its walls entire, and its open doors seem to invite the stranger to enter; but the family are not there, and silence reigns in the halls of Diomede!

“I never before felt as I did when I entered this deserted house—pensive, solemn, and in full sympathy with the tragical story. Sentinels still keep these doors; not the helmeted Roman, who, firm and unmoved, surveyed the storm of fire but yielded not to fear, preferring to die at his post,[7] but Neapolitans stationed there by the government to prevent invasion of the ruins. One there was, a veteran, whose snowy hair, and visage so deeply marked by time, made us almost feel as if he must have been present when the volcanic tempest raged, and had, Salathiel-like, come down to our time to relate the events of those dreadful days. But a garrulous guide, who spoke tolerable English, placed himself at the head of our party, and was our =cicerone= through an intensely interesting day. We mused for a few minutes in the vacant rooms of the house of Diomede, walked upon the still beautiful mosaic pavements and floors, passed through the dormitories, the triclinium, the impluvium, and the hall for conversation; observed the water-cistern, and the channels worn in the stone curb by the friction of the rope, and then descended to the vaults beneath, in which so many members of the family met their fate. This gallery is strongly arched with brick, and was used as a wine-cellar, as appears from twenty-five amphoræ still remaining there, and which were found filled with volcanic matter.

-----

Footnote 7:

“In the Pompeian museum at Naples, we afterward saw the skull of such
a Roman, whose head was still covered by his helmet, and whose
skeleton was found at his station in the gate of Pompeii.”

-----

“On the twenty-fourth of August, in the year 79 of our own era, and not long after midday, Vesuvius broke the repose of untold ages, and resumed, with tragical energy, his ancient reign of fire, awakening the slumbering echoes of his power with terrible detonations and fearful earthquakes. A darkness that might be felt, shrouded in the profoundest gloom the midday sun, and ashes fell like snow upon the mountain, the plain, the bays of Naples and Baiæ, and far into the surrounding country. Rain from the condensed steam of the eruption deluged the whole district; torrents of fluid mud, formed by the ashes and water, swept over every obstruction, and filled to overflowing every depression of the surface. The terrified inhabitants, overwhelmed by superstitious fears, joined the droves of domestic animals, whose keener instincts had already impelled them to desert a district filled with sulphureous vapors, and vibrating with ominous and unwonted sounds, wandering, they knew not where, in search of some place where the frightful evidences of the wrath of the gods might be avoided.

“But the family of Diomede sought refuge from the falling pumice under the strong arch of the wine-cellar, strong enough to resist and sustain the load of falling materials, but not proof against the deluge of volcanic mud, whose unexpected inundation brought death to the mistress, her children, and fifteen female slaves. The record of the manner of their death is even now perfectly legible. The form of the mistress, with her back and head to the wall, with outstretched arms, is clearly delineated by the difference of color. Surrounding her are the impressions of the persons of seventeen others, various in stature, but all standing, save one infant in the arms. When these silent vaults were excavated, here stood the skeletons of these unfortunate people, the rich jewels of the mistress and of her daughter circling the bony fingers and wrists and neck. These we afterward saw in the museum at Naples, the left shoulder of the mother, as also the skull of the daughter, whose name, _Julia_, was engraved upon her bracelet. Equally strange and wonderful was it to see the cast of the bosom of this Roman matron, taken with lifelike precision, in the soft and fluid tufa. Her hand still grasped the purse, whose contents are also among the wonderful treasures of the same museum. Beyond the garden and the fish-pond, which are contiguous to the wine-cellar, there is a gateway where were found two skeletons, with valuable vessels and money; one hand held a rusted key, and the other a bag with coin and cameos, and vessels of silver and bronze were here. These are believed to have been the remains of the master Diomede and his servant. A wrapper contained eighty pieces of silver money, ten of gold, and some bronze. It appears highly probable that, having left the family in a place which was believed to be safe, they were engaged in transporting valuables to a place of deposit, when they were overtaken by the same deluge which destroyed their friends.

“The water-line to which the fluid magma rose in this quadrangular vaulted gallery, is still visible upon the walls, (some twelve to fifteen inches above the tallest head,) nearly even with several small apertures through which, as well as through the door, it probably flowed. It is not unlikely that this inundation was accompanied by torrents of carbonic acid and other noxious gases, so abundantly exhaled in more modern eruptions of Vesuvius, by which these refugees from the dangers above ground were perhaps so suddenly suffocated as to remain unmoved in the positions where they were found. The sudden death of the elder Pliny, who, his nephew says, was suffocated by a noxious exhalation upon the same occasion, and at no great distance from Pompeii, may, with much probability, be ascribed to the same cause.

“The facts now detailed clearly show that vast torrents of mud must have passed through the streets of Pompeii, since dry ashes and ejections of lapilli and pumice, unaided by water, could never have found their way into the interior of closed amphoræ, nor made perfect molds of the human form, nor left a level water-line upon the inner walls of close arched passages. The shower of materials which buried the city, was mainly composed of small pieces of white pumice and rounded lapilli of various colors, interspersed with some large projected masses of rock-bombs, such as Vesuvius has often thrown out in later times. These by their fall broke through the roofs, and at the places where they struck, depressed the mosaic pavements into a concave form, as we saw in several of the houses. A darker colored sand appears to have alternated with the pumice, and often forms a distinct and thick layer upon it. Numerous such alternations have been made out by the Neapolitan geologists, and we afterward saw the same order of stratification distinctly in another part of the town, where fresh excavations were going on. The fresh section here showed, that these loose materials fell much as snow falls in our northern climates when driven by the wind, being thicker in the angles than in the centers of the houses, and rising in curves corresponding to the elevations and depressions of the surface.

“The celebrated Appian way passed by the house of Diomede, and through Pompeii to Stabiæ. The road is now above ground, and is evidently as perfect as when Pompeii was buried. It is paved with large blocks of the ancient lava of Mount Somma, which, of course, proves the occurrence of early eruptions of the volcano, although at an unknown era. Deep ruts are worn by the wheels in the solid lava, which is as firm as trap, while the stones are strongly marked by the rust of the iron worn off from the wheel-tires. The furrows prove that the wheels were not more than four feet apart. This is proved also by the position of the stepping-stones for crossing the streets, which were so placed that the wheels passed between them. The stepping-stones were very large, and two and a half or three feet long, their longest diameter coinciding with the direction of the street; and they were laid so near to each other that the passengers could pass quite across the street from one side-walk to the opposite, without stepping down. There were side-walks in the principal streets, about three feet wide, and two feet above the pavement. The streets were paved with the same hard lava rock, and in many places it was worn into deep hollows by human feet, thus proving the high antiquity of the city. The street near the barracks is only thirteen feet wide. We passed through one street in which the pavement was in very bad order; the ruts were worn irregularly and very deep, the stones were tilted out of the proper level, and there, as sometimes happens in modern cities, the street commissioners had evidently not done their duty.

“The Appian way, near to Pompeii, but outside of the walls and immediately contiguous to them, is, as at Rome, bordered on both sides by _tombs_. and in general they are in good condition, having been preserved during seventeen centuries equally from injuries by the weather and by wanton violation. They are of marble, and their Latin inscriptions still commemorate their tenants. One tomb, constructed in the manner of the columbaria, is dedicated to the gladiators, and is decorated with bas-reliefs representing their combats. Near the tombs, and outside of the walls, we saw sheds for the horses of those who arrived after the gates of the city were closed. No stables have been discovered in the town, but skeletons of horses were found at this place, where there was a large tavern.

“Pompeii was first discovered in 1748. It lies about twelve miles south-east from Naples. The town was extremely compact, and appears to have been only three-fourths of a mile long by half a mile wide. The houses were joined together. Twenty streets, which are only fifteen feet wide, had been uncovered twenty years since. Although only one-third part of the city has been cleared of its covering, five or six hours were industriously employed by us, with our two guides, in visiting the most interesting private dwellings and the public buildings. We were indeed richly rewarded for our effort. Here we were, walking in the very streets and on the very pavements on which the ancient Romans trod; we were surveying the very houses in which they dwelt: we saw the vestibules, the impluvium (an interior and central receptacle for the rain-water from the roofs;) their triclinia, or dining-halls; their colonnades, surrounding an interior open area, in which they walked and conversed with their families and friends; the fish-ponds, also in an open area; the private marble baths; the kitchens and other arrangements for culinary purposes; the gardens in the rear of the houses, the halls and colonnades opening into the garden; the whole forming a domestic dominion secure from public inspection. All these arrangements were perfectly intelligible to us; and as we walked from house to house, it was not difficult to imagine that we were making calls, and that the people were not at home.

“Everywhere, even in the smaller houses, the floors were adorned with mosaic; many of the best designs have been sent to Naples, but, including what is still covered, much more remains in place, and not essentially injured. When it is considered that no melted lava flowed into Pompeii, but that it was covered solely by a volcanic shower of comminuted pumice and other pulverulent materials, which accumulated until the roofs were crushed inward by the weight, it will be easily understood that the mosaic floors may have remained for seventeen or eighteen hundred years, substantially uninjured. The mosaic of Pompeii is uncovered in many places, and when the dust is brushed away and the surface is wiped with a wet cloth, as was done for our gratification, all the original brightness and beauty of the figures shine forth, and in the finest patterns, the execution was in a high degree tasteful and elegant. At the door of the mansion of the edile Glaucus, which was one of the largest and best in the city, there was, in the vestibule and before entering the house, a very startling mosaic figure of a large and powerful dog, secured by a chain around his neck, but crouching and fierce, as if about to spring upon the visitor; and immediately before this vigilant sentinel, you read in large Roman letters, CAVE CANEM—beware of the dog! The inscription is preserved in the original place where we saw it, but the dog has been removed to the museum at Naples. It is still a perfect figure of a Roman dog.

“The frescoes of Pompeii and Herculaneum, have put us in possession of very perfect specimens of the skill of the Romans in the art of painting. The only examples of their pictorial talent previously known, were the comparatively imperfect decorations in the baths of Titus at Rome. In these buried cities nearly all the walls of the houses are frescoed, and among these, have been found many superb specimens of ancient art. Most of the best have been removed to the museum of Naples, but some of considerable merit still remain in place, and no doubt further excavations will show numerous others now unknown. The colors are somewhat faded, but are bright when wet. The copies in water-colors, sold at Naples, give very perfectly the idea of these frescoes, but with more brilliancy than is possessed by the original. Many of these figures are nude, although many are draped. We were particularly struck with the singularity of some of the figures on the walls, having _shoes_ very much like our modern ones. As the great object of art is to present Nature in her forms of greatest purity and grace, these nude figures can not meet with more objections than their modern representatives. We saw nothing in Pompeii or Herculaneum, worthy of so much criticism in point of taste, as may be seen in almost any of the European galleries of modern painting. Titian’s Loves of the Gods in Blenheim palace, certainly surpass the ancients in this respect.

“An expected visit of the Duke d’Aumale (son of Louis Philippe, and allied by marriage to the royal family of Naples) has been made the occasion of _an additional excavation_, which is now being carried on by order of the king. We thought it rare good fortune, that we could stand by and see the moving of materials which had not been disturbed since the catastrophe. They are entirely unconsolidated, and are easily moved by the shovel. The accumulations did not appear to be more than ten feet above the tops of the houses, but if measured from the level of the streets, they might have been twenty feet in thickness. In it were distinctly visible the alternation of fine pumice, coarse pumice, lapilli and dark colored sand, before mentioned.

“We had the pleasure of seeing apartments that had been recently opened, and of going into several of them. In these, the pictures are fresh, and far less faded than in those that have been long exposed. In one of these houses, all the marble figures found around the impluvium, and colonnade, and fountain, have been allowed to remain intact, as the Romans left them, when they fled for their lives. Around the fountain in one of these houses, there were numerous grotesque jets formed of marble, in the shape of miniature bulls, ducks and dolphins, and associated with them was a Bacchus. A leaden tube which formerly conveyed water for the fountain, remains in place as it passed through the wall. We observed, as illustrating the condition of the art of working this metal among the Romans, that the pipe was not drawn nor cast, but was made by folding up a sheet into the tubular form, and closing the joint by a lap without solder. In this house was a large vaulted music room, the walls of which are nearly perfect. The object for which the room was constructed, was sufficiently indicated by figures of musical instruments, and of persons playing upon them. Columns were in general use in the better houses, around the included area, in the gardens, and in other places. In the best dwellings they are of polished marble, in many they are stuccoed. Some of the Roman houses, in their most perfect and uninjured condition, must have been very beautiful, although their accommodations were much more limited than those of modern times. The rooms, the dormitories especially, were much smaller, and the houses were low, and rarely rose above two stories. They were so constructed as to admit of the most perfect domestic seclusion: no eye could scrutinize the family privacy from the street, or from another house. Various names have been given to several of the larger and more beautiful houses in Pompeii, sometimes fanciful, but more frequently from some statue, mosaic, painting, or other distinctive work of art found in them, referring, as is sometimes supposed, to the owner. Thus we saw the houses of the Faun, of the Medusa, of the three Fountains, and those of Pansa, of Glaucus, of Sallust, and of Cicero. It is doubtful whether Cicero had a house at Pompeii, and still more doubtful whether the one called by his name had any connection with him. The three fountains in the house of that name, are decorated with modern sea-shells, such as now abound in the Mediterranean, and in a style of patterns still prevalent in Naples. The fountains in the two houses newly exposed were very elegant, and in perfect condition.

“The forum was large and handsome, and surrounded with double rows of columns for a covered colonnade. In connection with it, was a temple of Jupiter, and another opposite to it, of Venus, both decorated with massive monolithic columns. Half-dressed blocks of marble and portions of columns lie on the ground in the forum, where they were in process of preparation, to repair the injuries done to the building by the shocks of an earthquake, before the destructive eruption. Numerous dislocated and propped walls in the city bear testimony to the same event, which occurred in the year 63. Connected with the forum, was the basilica or hall of justice, a structure adorned with columns, and provided with an elevated tribune for the judges. Vaulted apartments beneath, were used as a prison, communicating by a circular opening in the crown of the arch, with the hall above. In this prison, which we entered, were found three skeletons of prisoners, ironed to the floor, doubtless waiting their examination at the time of the catastrophe, which so unexpectedly changed the venue of their trial to another bar! Many acres are inclosed by the various structures of the forum, whose very ruins, with their numerous columns, make a grand appearance. Among the ruins, are those of a temple to Esculapius, one for Hercules, and another for Fortune.

“Numerous monuments and inscriptions in Pompeii, indicate the Greek origin of the original colony, and the Egyptian customs and society which preceded the Roman dynasty. The temple of Isis still shows its sacrificial altar, and inscriptions in Egyptian characters cover the columns. Some of the largest and most beautiful of the silver vessels in the museum at Naples, were found in this temple. Curiously enough, as we entered these ancient precincts, in which the serpent was held sacred, a snake, reputed by the guide as venomous, crossing our path, was made a victim, which we offered on the altar.

“Beneath a superb portico in the street of the tombs, the skeletons of a female and several children were discovered; in the street near the temple of Isis, another skeleton was found at the depth of ten feet, and below it, a large collection of gold and silver medals in perfect preservation, chiefly of the reign of Domitian.

“The theaters, whose remains are distinct, are the comic, the tragic, and the amphitheater. They were lined with polished marble, and were, in every way, highly finished and elegant. Of the two former, the entire plan and the greater part of the structure are visible, and most of the seats are in place.

“The amphitheater was in a remote part of the city, near the eastern wall. It has undergone so little dilapidation, that it appears almost perfect. We approached it by ascending the ground until we were quite at the top, and we then descended by the stone seats, quite to the arena, which, by pacing, we found to be two hundred and forty feet by one hundred and twenty. From the arena we looked up over the entire circuit and elevation of the seats, which are almost perfectly preserved—thanks to the sepulture of seventeen hundred years. Had this amphitheater been in the midst of Naples, as the Coliseum was at Rome, it would, no doubt, have fared as ill at the hands of the architects. It was easy for us now to people it in imagination, with the thousands of Romans who have so often gazed and applauded from these seats, while blood, both brute and human, was flowing in the arena where we were standing. Such may have been the scenes when the tempest of fire broke forth, for the people of Pompeii are said to have been then engaged in the amphitheater.

“There are two buildings for _public baths_, which are well preserved; the bronze seats and braziers still remain in them. For men, there was a common bath, circular and large enough for entire immersion; it is of marble, and is now in good condition. The dome, or ceiling, has in part fallen in, but the portion over the bath is preserved. We measured the room and found it to be sixty feet by twenty. There was another bath for women, contiguous to this, but at a proper distance. This marble bath is quite perfect, and the room being entirely arched has been preserved uninjured. It is most interesting. There is a living fountain at one end, and there was an arrangement, whose object is even now quite apparent, for warming the room by hot air or steam. Here, in this ancient ladies’ bath, we dined upon our stores brought out from Naples. Intruding upon this retreat, once so sacred, we seated ourselves quite conveniently, on the side of the bath, in a fine frescoed room of sixty feet by sixteen. This was the most perfect building that we saw in Pompeii. In this vicinity, there is a _living fountain_ still abundant, and the river Sarno runs at this moment beneath Pompeii. Through a wide opening we saw its copious and lively stream still flowing in its ancient channel, apparently undisturbed by volcanic and earthquake convulsions.

“The walls of Pompeii are still in good condition; they were three miles in circuit, from eighteen to twenty feet high, and twenty feet thick. Seven gates have been discovered; the gate of Herculaneum, of Vesuvius, of Capua, of Nola, of Sarno, of Stabiæ, and of the theaters. The sites of nine towers have been ascertained. We ascended the wall by stairs of stone, doubtless coeval with the wall itself: the view was imposing. Vesuvius rose above the desolated city, looking down upon its naked walls and roofless houses. The volcanic mound still covers two-thirds of the city, and nothing on its upper surface tells of what lies below. It were greatly to be desired, that an enlightened and energetic government, with adequate means, would uncover the entire city, with its numerous hidden works of art and materials of history.

“The baker’s shop, with his oven of arched and modern form, the tub of stone in which he wet his broom, and the hourglass-shaped mills of hard lava for grinding the grain, we saw all perfect. There were mills of two sizes: one small, such as could be turned by hand, as when ‘two women were grinding at the mill,’ and one much larger, and provided with square holes to receive the ends of levers, requiring, of course, much more force to turn them, and doubtless worked by men. The shops of the wine and oil merchants were provided with large _amphoræ_ set in masonry under the counter, for storing those fluids, and numerous other arrangements for the convenience of the occupants were visible.

“In one house we saw a small circular window, in which part of the glass plate which originally filled it still remains. One other similar glass is said to have been found, although shutters were in general use for most of the windows. As there were no windows, as with us, opening upon the street, and all the doors and windows of the house opened upon private courts and gardens, there was in this mild and equable climate far less occasion for the use of glass than might seem at first requisite. That they understood the manufacture of glass, and how to color it, by the use of the oxyds of cobalt and copper, is abundantly proved by the remains of this ancient art now in the Borbonico museum, at Naples.

“One peculiarity in the construction of the Pompeian houses favors the removal and preservation of the frescoes. The walls upon which the pictures are painted are not solid, but the frescoed surface is supported by studs of masonry or iron, at a distance of some four or five inches in front of the brick walls. Security from dampness is thus obtained, and the task of removing the valued surface much simplified and facilitated. The declining sun found us still lingering on the seats of the amphitheater, at the remotest angle of the city wall, dwelling with delight upon these memorials of the past, and speculating upon the probability of renewed activity in Vesuvius, whose quiet blue cone rose over our right shoulders crowned with a soft cloud of vapor. It was late in the evening of this most interesting day when we reached the door of our hotel, long after darkness had hidden the landscape.

THE MUSEUM.

“The Musæo Borbonico (as it is now called) contains all the most choice and valued works of art and objects of interest which the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii have brought to light. To this we repaired on the day following our visit to Pompeii, to follow up our researches into the details of these most interesting discoveries. Here we saw the golden ornaments found upon the skeletons in the house of Diomede, as before mentioned, and many others also. One pair of bracelets weighed a pound each. As for the workmanship, all that was said of the Etruscan golden ornaments is substantially true of the Pompeian. The ladies of these cities were certainly well provided with costly jewelry, both of pure gold and of the same metal set with precious stones. There was one ribbon of wrought gold. Ring stones and brooches without number are preserved here, and among the cameos in agate, are the largest as well as the smallest and most exquisite of these elaborate works of art ever found. Many of the latter can be appreciated only when examined under a strong magnifier.

“Utensils in earthen ware are abundant, but porcelain seems to have been unknown to the Romans. Blown and molded glass of various forms and colors, and designed for various uses, is also common. Pickle jars and olive jars, still retaining their preserved fruits in good condition, were found, and others contained cosmetics or colors. One elegant vase, of the color of =lapis lazuli=, has figures in white enamel cut on its sides, reminding us of the celebrated Portland vase. The Romans seldom employed iron for culinary purposes, but almost every vessel of this description was fashioned from bronze. A very extensive collection is found in this museum, reproducing nearly all our modern metallic vessels both of utility and ornament. They are generally elegant in form, and are often ornamented with artistic designs, especially in the attachment of the spouts, handles, feet or other prominent parts. They are generally also in a remarkable state of preservation, being for the most part merely covered by a thin coating of greenish rust, easily removed. Sometimes, however, they are corroded through and through with holes. Among the bronze vessels in the collection is one showing that the Romans were well acquainted with the modern device of a heater to keep liquids hot in a large vessel. It is quite on the model of the coffee urn of our day. They also employed, as is evident, steam and hot water to keep dishes hot; for there is a very pretty affair in bronze, like a shallow pan, to hold water, set on legs, with a fire beneath, and provided with valves for the escape of steam.

“Among the objects most frequently found in Pompeii are fishing-nets and tackle, showing the habits of the people in this particular to be similar to those of the modern towns of the same coast, although now Pompeii is a mile from the sea. The iron rings in the walls for fastening vessels were also found, and prove still more conclusively the accumulations in seventeen hundred years. Two vases were discovered in Pompeii full of water; in one it was tasteless and limpid, and in the other brown and alkaline. Among the things preserved in the buried cities were walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, dates, dried figs, prunes, corn, oil, peas, lentils, pies and hams. Papyri were found in large numbers, but the rolls were blackened, as were the timber and the corn, as vegetables are by inhumation in coal beds. Beside the pickles, and olives, and roe of fish, already mentioned, we saw in a glass globe, in this part of the museum, wheat, and barley also, blackened by age and dampness. The loaves of bread, bearing the baker’s stamp, which were found in the shop already named, are singularly perfect, showing distinctly the lines of quartering in which the loaf was designed to be cut.