I have been so long accustomed to watch for opportunities of sending letters, and to feel disappointed on missing any, that I do not know how to reconcile myself to the power of sending them twice a week, when I have neither time nor matter for such frequent correspondence; but my feelings are altogether different from what they were when I was here a year ago. The novelties of my journey are over, and what remains for me to do, is merely to revisit cities I have already seen, or others very similar to them, and inhabited by people whose manners and language are grown familiar to me. Returning to Naples seemed in some degree like coming home; the shops, the streets, the buildings, and many faces I recollected at once, and found that many persons recollected me. I received at my inn the welcome of an old acquaintance.

The people here, both men and women, look uncommonly handsome, which perhaps will make you think poorly of the Greeks and Sicilians. The bay has lost nothing in its impression of beauty from the scenes I have since contemplated; only the mountains appear less than my memory had represented them. The city is decidedly finer than Palermo, though while in that city, I was inclined to dispute its pre-eminence.

I staid a few days at Pompei, or rather at Torre dell’ Annunziata, in the beginning of October, and returned to it again at the middle of the month; but thinking I might as well save the time spent in walking backwards and forwards between these two places, I removed after a few days to a wine-house, which is close by the excavations. I could procure there neither coffee nor milk, but lived on meat, maccaroni, and love-apples. At first there was no cause for complaint, but after some days the landlord’s efforts began to relax, of which I complained on leaving him. He seemed conscious that he was in fault, and promised that if I would come again, he would treat me from beginning to end to my heart’s content. My chamber was indeed a sort of store-room, but if the apartment was not splendid, I had at least a clean pair of sheets. One large window opened down to the floor, and on to the terraced roof of the lower part of the house, which was easily accessible by means of the rubbish accumulated from the excavations behind; nearly opposite to this, but high up in the room, there was another small window, which I usually left open, while I shut the larger one. My landlord one morning observing this arrangement, cautioned me very gravely against it, recommending me either to shut both windows, or to leave both open; for said he, if the air come in on one side, and find a free passage, it will go out without doing any harm; but if it is confined, you will certainly suffer from it. I shall quote this dictum in England when I hear about draughts.

In the beginning of November I returned again to Pompei, and now that I fancy myself pretty well acquainted with what is to be seen there, I shall proceed to give you some account of this most interesting place, which I have hitherto postponed, with the intention of combining all I had to say on the subject, in one general view.

The first object at Pompei on the south side of the city, is a large square court, surrounded with columns, usually called the Soldiers’ Quarters. Parts of almost all the columns are standing, and many remain of the full height, and with their capitals, but no part of the original construction above the capitals now exists; however, when first dug out, the decayed woodwork still retained its forms, and one angle has been restored precisely on the ancient model; at least such is the information given to us on the spot, and it is this restoration I am about to describe to you. The architrave consists of a piece of timber, slight for its position, and shewing distinctly the origin of the small and insufficient architrave found in the examples of the Roman Doric, and considered afterwards as constituting a part of the character of that order. Round the court are a number of little chambers, and in some places the remains of staircases. There is a projecting gallery under the portico, which communicates with the chambers of the upper story. This gallery was defended by a railing with intersecting braces, the top of which is rather lower than the capitals of the columns, and the gallery is therefore partly in the roof; the tiles are of two sorts, flat, with raised edges laid upon the rafters, and semicircular, placed over the joints of the first. The chimneys are covered with similar tiles, but a projection on each side, open beneath, gives an exit for the smoke in a downward direction. We observe from the different styles of workmanship, that the walls were built at various times, but never in a very solid manner, and that the columns, which were originally of a slender Greek Doric, of pleasing proportion, and well suited to the small size, and simple character of the place, were afterwards covered with an enormously thick coat of very indifferent stucco. On the lower parts of all the columns this stucco was painted red, on the upper part of four of them, two in the middle of each longer side of the court, blue; and on the others alternately red and yellow. The whole of this stucco and painted work must be considered as a gross deformity, and I hope you do not suppose that what I have said on former occasions in favour of rich detail, and of colouring, was intended to include every multiplication of small parts, or every mode of diversifying colour. In its original state, as a court surrounded by seventy-four stone columns of a sober gray colour, it must have had a pleasing and respectable, if not a magnificent appearance. Columns alone are sufficient to produce that effect, for which I want a word, and which I find it difficult to explain to my own satisfaction, but which in the disposition of the principal parts, corresponds with the richness produced by the smaller elements of sculpture, moulding, and carving. A modern Italian church with its broken entablatures, multiplied pilasters, and corners of pilasters, festoons, niches, and broken pediments over them, abounds more in detail than a Greek temple. Yet at a little distance the former looks poor, because it wants this richness in the distribution of the larger parts.

On one side of the court is a recess, ornamented with Ionic columns. This mixture of the orders seems to have been common in ancient times, and is not objectionable in a circumstance like this, where the more ornamented work belongs to a smaller and more highly finished building within the larger. Where the second order forms the internal part of the same building, as in the Greek propylæa, it is more doubtful; and must at once be reprobated in the temple of Apollo at Bassæ, near Phygaleia, if it be true that one Corinthian column existed in the internal, Ionic peristyle of a temple externally Doric.

We pass from this court to another, where a few brick columns irregularly placed afforded a sheltered communication to the two theatres; and thence turn to the right into the small, or covered theatre. The scene is here a plain wall, and is said to be of modern erection. The seats are of lava, moulded at the edge, except the lower ones for the senators, &c. who are supposed to have had the convenience of cushions, and perhaps of a sort of stool or chair. A portion remains of the rich marble pavement of the orchestra. Over the side entrances are spaces supposed to have been occupied, each by a sort of box for some distinguished persons, but the position of the staircases seems to announce an intimate connexion with the actors. Like most other buildings at Pompei, this edifice exhibits traces of the earthquake which preceded by sixteen years, the fatal eruption, and of consequent restorations.

The Large Theatre has been lined with marble; and the Scene is ornamented with niches and advancing pedestals, some of which apparently supported columns and statues. The arrangement is very much like that at Taormina, and with the assistance of these, and of the one at Herculaneum, we may form some idea of the architectural arrangement and decoration of the ancient stage. The style was not very pure, but nevertheless may have possessed its share of beauty, considered merely as ornament. Perhaps the mode here adopted, may have given birth to the lighter and more fantastic architecture, so abundantly painted in the baths and chambers of the ancients.

In this theatre we find a recess in the lower part of the sedile, and marks in the stone, apparently of the means of affixing a permanent chair. The recess is opposite the middle of the scene, but the holes for the chair are not in the centre of the recess; but would leave room for another moveable chair by its side. In front of the chairs there is an inscription to Marcus Holconius Rufus, Duumvir. Some of the seats are numbered, by which we learn that 15¼ inches were allowed for each spectator.

From the upper part of the great theatre we pass into another large court, surrounded with columns of the Doric order; they are of stone, covered with a thin, fine, hard coat of stucco, probably coeval with the building. This court is much larger than that of the Soldiers’ Quarters, but from its irregularity, and much more imperfect condition, is less interesting. We enjoy from it however, and from the upper part of the theatre, a most beautiful view of part of the bay of Naples, the mountain range behind Castellammare and Sorrento, and the island of Capri. Within the court are the ruins of the Temple of Hercules, hardly elevated above the soil. It is called also the Great Temple, a name which seemed ridiculous enough to me, just come from Sicily, where one column of the temple of Jupiter at Agrigentum contains as much solid material, as the whole of such an edifice as this when perfect. Some persons have doubted whether it was a temple at all, since from a comparison of the different dimensions, it appears probable that there were seven columns in front,^[40] and eleven on the sides, including those of the angles, but the unequal number in front is not decisive against its religious character, though it probably in that case announces a very high antiquity; and this idea is favoured by other circumstances. The large and heavily projecting capital is exceedingly weather-worn, and the manner in which the fragments were found, indicates that it lay as a ruin even before the earthquake. There are some little buildings just in front of it, which form a puzzle to the antiquaries, but I shall content myself with endeavouring to explain what I think I do understand, and not lose myself in unsatisfactory discussions on objects which I do not. There is a semicircular bench near the temple, suited alike for prospect or conversation. This court communicates with the street by means of a graceful Ionic portico of the same taste as that in the Soldiers’ Quarters; but as this is a more perfect example, I shall endeavour to give you some idea of it. Two pilasters, each with a three quarter column joined to it, and six insulated columns form the front of a recess; the lower diameter of the column appears to have been 2 feet, the upper is 20¼ inches, the flutes finishing square, one inch and one third under the necking. The capitals have four similar faces, the volutes being formed something in the manner of the external one of the angular capital of a Greek Ionic. In that, however, if we take our example from the temple of Minerva Polias at Athens (see Stuart), the lower rim of the volute on each face is curved on the plan so as to keep it perpendicularly, or nearly perpendicularly, under the upper rim, and the face of the volute consequently upright. In these, the curve of the volute begins much earlier, leaving but a small flat surface above the ovolo, and the lower part of the rim is returned parallel, or very nearly parallel to the diagonal of the abacus, which, giving to the volute the appearance of looking downwards, produces a very marked character. The eggs are very small, not exceeding one third of the whole height of the convex moulding, or ovolo, which they adorn, or rather they are not eggs, but a berry, of which half only is shewn, laid on a double leaf. The entablature used both for this order and the ancient Corinthian of Italy, has the dentils very narrow and close together, more like the ends of boards placed vertically, than of joists or rafters. In this instance they are twice as numerous as the beads of the moulding immediately above them. The Pompeians were evidently fond of strongly marked lines in their mouldings. To produce that effect they introduced very deep sinkings in various parts, both in the Doric and Ionic orders.

Behind the theatre is an oblong court called the Schools, surrounded by a neat Doric colonnade. The name has been given it on account of two pedestals, one about 8 inches higher than the other, and a flight of stone steps connected with them which rises above the highest. It may have been of the nature of an auction room, but nothing that I know of has been invented to account for the two pedestals thus placed, and for the steps rising above both. Adjoining to this court is the Temple of Isis, which was never perhaps very beautiful, but it is now difficult to trace the original design under the incumbering load of more recent stucco. An inscription assures us that this edifice was re-built in consequence of an earthquake, and if, as seems probable, we may understand this of the earthquake of the year 63, it will fix the date of this bad stucco work. The columns of the cell are older, and of stone, but not in their original positions; those of the court, brick; all appear to have been stuccoed at the same time. This temple can hardly be said to offer simplicity of design; variety of parts it certainly has, and abundance of details; it finds many admirers, and in its present state of ruin offers some striking effects, and probably did so when perfect. It was a picturesque, rather than a beautiful object, and the smallness of the court is an advantage to it.

Very near to the temple of Isis is a small square cell attributed to Æsculapius, in which there are remains of a handsome pilaster capital, resembling in style those of Tivoli, but of superior execution. A flight of steps occurs at a little distance from the cell, leaving space for a small tetrastyle portico. The god was probably out of fashion, for there are no marks of restorations. At the foot of the steps is a tomb or altar, ornamented with Doric triglyphs, and having much of the character of the tomb of Scipio, of which I dare say you have seen engravings in abundance. Next to this temple is a house belonging to a sculptor, known by the tools found there, and by the unfinished works.

From this part of Pompei (all the objects I have hitherto mentioned lying close together) are two streets which are now cleared out, leading to the forum. In the way we meet only with private houses, of which by and by I shall give you a general idea.

In spite of bad architecture, small parts, and many encumbering pedestals placed for ornament, or to receive the statues of the gods and benefactors of the city, the Forum certainly was magnificent. What then may we imagine those of Rome to have been, where the size of the parts, and of the whole, the materials and the architecture, were so much superior. Magnificence in Italy is a very different thing from what it is north of the Alps, but that of the Romans appears as much to have surpassed modern Italy, as this latter surpasses that of the northern nations. This Forum was an oblong above 500 feet in length, and about 140 in width. At the south end is a double range of columns. A single row, but apparently supporting another above it, extended all along the west side. On the east side there seems not to have been a continued range, but a succession of detached porticos belonging to the different public buildings; or if the range of columns was continued, it was probably without a roof, since the space between it and the walls is always great, though very unequal. Some remains of cornice exist, complete on both faces, and there are plug-holes on the top of this cornice, which render it probable that the whole was crowned by a range of statues, or other ornaments. On the north, between two decorative arches, are the remains of the temple of Jupiter. Here is a magnificent, though somewhat irregular avenue, leading to a splendid object, and though encumbered by too many pedestals and statues, yet these being fine objects in themselves, were probably not very injurious to the expression of magnificence. Their very number alone would produce a striking effect, heightened rather than diminished by the irregular manner in which they are placed, because this apparent confusion, like that of the stars, would make the number appear greater. The surrounding buildings were worthy of the situation they occupied. Near the southern end we see very evidently the progress of restorations. The older columns were a well-wrought Doric, of a dark coloured, volcanic stone, much resembling peperino, the lower part of the shaft being cut into a prism of twenty faces, while the upper part had as many flutes; the capital was handsome, and the entablature by no means inelegant. The later columns are of coarse limestone or travertine, clumsy in design throughout the whole order, and very irregularly and unskilfully executed. There are remains scattered about of an Ionic order, which seems to have surmounted the Doric. On the south side of the forum there are three large halls, which according to some persons were temples, while others suppose them to have been courts of justice. They must have been in great measure built or rebuilt after the earthquake, as most of the brickwork still looks fresh and new, and they have never been completed.

The first building on the western side is called the Basilica. It consisted of a magnificent court surrounded by colonnades, the columns of which were of considerable size. At the upper end are the remains of the ornamented tribune, or seat of justice, adorned with smaller columns, and faced and cased with marble. Some doubts arise as to the disposition of some of the parts, but enough remains to furnish a very interesting comment on what the ancients have left us respecting their basilicas. The open court is about 37 feet wide and 141 feet long. The columns surrounding it are twenty-eight in number; and of these, the bases and lower parts of the shaft, curiously formed of bricks made for the purpose, are still to be seen, together with some traces of the stucco with which they have been covered. This stucco appears to have been in great measure knocked off, probably in order to prepare for the restoration of the brickwork after the earthquake. These columns are 3 feet 5½ inches in diameter measured in the brickwork on the angle of the flutes, and could not have been less than 3 feet 7 inches in the stucco. Corresponding in position with these columns, is a series of half columns, against the walls of the building, but if measured likewise in the brickwork, their diameter is only 2 feet 8¼ inches; too small apparently to be carried up to the same height as the entire columns, and too large to admit a gallery above them within the principal order. A considerable number of capitals were found within the circuit of the building, but it does not appear that any of them can be attributed with certainty to either of these orders. They were of two sorts; the one an Ionic, resembling that of the portico before mentioned, but with the addition of a bold flower springing upwards and inwards from the base of the volute. The diameter of the capitals of this nature, below the necking, varies from 2 feet 5 inches to 2 feet 1 inch. It may be considered quite as a new style (to us) of the Ionic order. The other is Corinthian, in the style of Tivoli, which was without doubt that of Italy, before the general employment of Greek artists and Greek taste. The Corinthian column is 1 foot 6½ inches in diameter under the necking, and fluted; whereas the shaft of the Ionic column appears to have been quite plain. No entablature is found which can probably be attributed to either of these orders, but we may conclude from other examples, as well as from the authority of Vitruvius, that the dentilled cornice without the modillions was used in both. The dentils here, as already observed, bore a peculiar character. Both these capitals have been coated with a fine stucco, rarely exceeding half an inch in thickness.

Besides these four kinds of columns, we have the remains of another set, probably Corinthian, which adorned the tribunal; these are 1 foot 9 inches in the bottom diameter, and consequently not unsuitable for the Corinthian capitals above described; but only six such entire capitals would have been required, and above twenty exist of that size and character; and besides we may observe stones which seem to form part of the shaft under these capitals, 21½ inches in diameter, or rather more than that of the remaining bases. Some of these capitals are attached to square blocks of stone, but these differ from the others by a row of low water-leaves, immediately under the volutes and caulicolæ.

The Basilica was closed in front by portcullises, the grooves for which remain. It is remarkable that in this part we see the stucco of two different operations. Each is in two coats. The earliest is very good and firm, the two coats not occupying half an inch; but it has evidently in most places been cut away to make room for the second, of which very little remains, and that little is much inferior to the older work. The two coats occupied about one inch.

Next to the basilica is the Temple of Venus, surrounded with a colonnaded court, and standing itself on a lofty basement. This court is very curious, as we find in it fragments of columns of the Ionic order about 2 feet in diameter, resembling those of the basilica, but without a central flower in the capital, and of a Doric entablature. The capitals have been defaced in order to receive a poorly designed Corinthian foliage of stucco, and the old lines and decorations of the entablature were entirely hid by a plaster coating, full of ornaments, painted in all the colours of the rainbow. I suspect that this entablature in its original form belonged to some other building. Perhaps it made part of that of the forum previous to the earthquake. Before every other column there appear to have been a pedestal and a statue. Nine columns occupy the entrance side, and the door was not in the centre; but the Pompeians do not seem to have been in any respect remarkable for the accuracy of their workmanship. The stucco walls of this court have been elegantly painted. In one part this stucco is laid on tiles, which by means of little feet are kept hollow from the walls. An aqueduct at the back, probably rendered such a precaution necessary. The temple seems to have been hexastyle and peripteral, though not only the columns, but the external stones of the basement on which they stood, have been displaced, so that it appears at first sight as if there could have been no room for them. Some fragments remain below, which probably formed parts of the shafts. Both the cell and the portico were ornamented with mosaic pavements.

Returning to the forum, we find beyond this temple, a range of piers and arches, built also after the earthquake, and opening into a large hall or court, which exhibits no appearance of decoration.

On the east side of the forum, beginning again from the south end, we have first a double portico, in front of a large decorated enclosure, then a large building, which has been very richly ornamented. A range of columns separated it from the forum, and the remains of a pedestal in front of each column gives reason to suppose that there were an equal number of statues. Behind is a wall ornamented with arches and niches, which probably also contained statues. The whole of this work was faced with marble, and the wide space between the wall and the columns exhibits remains of a marble paving. Within, was a large court, surrounded by columns, with a continued gallery on three sides, and three niches at the end. A statue was found here, but the place appeared to have been previously despoiled. This may have proceeded from the researches of the inhabitants themselves, who probably returned after the danger was over to seek for their property; or it may have been done at a recent period; for many marbles have at intervals been dug up at Pompei, but the different claims of the finder, the landlord, and the government, occasioned the concealment of the place of discovery. It was known however, that numerous fragments had been found here; and acknowledged that some ancient city had probably occupied the site, though for a long time the learned were perfectly agreed that it was not Pompei. An inscription collected from the remaining portions of the epistylium of the columns towards the forum, which is also repeated at a smaller entrance from the Via de’ mercanti, informs us that this chalcidicum and cryptoporticus, were built and dedicated by a certain Eumachia. Here would seem to be the means of explaining two rather obscure terms of architecture, but nothing has been made of them.

Continuing our progress along the east side of the forum, we arrive at another enclosure surrounded with pilasters and niches, and a little temple or sanctuary in the middle of the side opposite to the entrance. It appears unfinished, and it is very probable that this and the building just mentioned were ruined by the earthquake, and not restored. There is a platform in front of the cell, the steps to which are behind the platform, and on the flank of the cell; in front of this platform there is a very beautiful marble pedestal, or altar. This building is called the Temple of Mercury. The angles of the court are all oblique: there are many little irregularities of this sort in the edifices of Pompei.

Beyond this we come to a spacious recess, 59 feet wide, which seems to have been open in front. It had a large niche at the bottom, a pedestal in the middle, and a secondary recess, with an altar at each side. There are small niches, as if for eight other altars, in this edifice, but if all fragments of brick or rubble that carry to us the appearance of altars, were really dedicated to the worship of their divinities, the Pompeians must have been a very religious people. This building was incrusted with marble, and whatever may have been its destination, it was evidently a magnificent and highly finished structure. Further on are some small rooms, with a marble portico in front, with the peculiarity already noticed, of a cornice which projects, and is complete on both sides, so as to render it doubtful if it were not a mere screen of single columns rather than a portico.

The northern end of the forum is occupied by the Temple of Jupiter, which is prostyle and pseudoperipteral, with six Corinthian columns in front, above 3 feet in diameter: this is large for Pompei: those of the portico of the forum are little more than two, and when we consider that the temple is elevated on a high basement, and that being of the Corinthian order, these columns were probably considerably higher in proportion than the others, as well as more ornamented, we shall find that the temple preserved its due superiority as the leading object in the place. The capitals are lying on the ground, and we may observe in them the original coat of stucco following the stone, and over that another thicker, not precisely in the same disposition, and much inferior both in drawing and execution. As it seems probable that these were thrown down by the earthquake and not restored, they would indicate an earlier date than that before obtained for this miserable stucco; and perhaps we may attribute it to the colony introduced by Sylla. This temple was hexastyle, prostyle, and hypæthral. The internal opening was surrounded by Ionic columns, and there are three little cells at the extremity, the use of which is unknown but their masonry is not bonded with that of the building, and they may therefore have been additions. There is a triumphal arch on each side of this temple. Both have been ornamented with marble, and probably with statues, but one more richly than the other. They are not in corresponding positions, the plainest being brought forward to the front of the portico of the temple of Jupiter, while the more ornamented is kept back, and even partly behind it.

The streets towards the Amphitheatre are not cleared out, and this monument stands quite detached from any other object of interest. It resembles in essentials other amphitheatres, and seems to have been almost without external ornament. There are some peculiarities of construction and of access, but nothing of importance.

I shall not enter into a particular description of each private house, but endeavour to give you a general idea of their disposition and effect. There are of course a great many which have no architecture, properly so called, but are merely built to occupy a little ground, and at little expense; even these had each an internal court. In the larger edifices, the parts towards the streets were let out for shops, except that the owner preserved one division to give an entrance into the principal apartment. This entrance was wide and lofty, and adorned with pilasters; through it you pass into the atrium, which was usually an oblong on the plan, with one or three recesses towards the end, the whole forming, together with the entrance, a sort of Latin cross; the middle part of the cross being open to the sky. Sometimes the projection of roof, which covered everything but this opening, was supported by columns, forming in that case, the Tuscan atrium of Vitruvius, and the recesses are the exhedræ, or perhaps the alæ. Even in this part there is considerable variety, as the design was modified to suit the convenience, the taste, or the caprice of the proprietor. Small apartments are disposed round the atrium, and receive their light from it, not by means of windows, though there are also a few windows to be found, but by the doors, which are very high, and of which the upper part was probably left open for that purpose. In most of the houses there was nothing more, or the back of the atrium opened merely into a little garden; but in the larger mansions, beyond the atrium, we find the cavædium, a court surrounded with columns, with exhedræ similar to those of the atrium, and giving light to other apartments. In the house of Pansa, the exhedra at the bottom of the cavædium opened into a colonnade towards the garden. The effect, looking through two courts, and in fact through all the principal parts of the edifice, must have been very striking, and it is so still; but you would not like to live in a house, even in a warm climate, where all the sitting rooms were exposed, and no retirement or privacy to be obtained, but in a badly lighted bed-chamber. In spite of this reflection, one cannot see this arrangement without longing to produce something of the same effect, consistently with our customs and our climate, but it is, I am afraid impossible. The exhedræ, or intermediate spaces between the atrium and cavædium, or either of these and the garden, are among the most richly decorated parts of the house. This openness both ways would produce an agreeable coolness in hot weather. There is always a little passage on the side to provide against their becoming thoroughfares for the family, and there are sometimes traces of a balustrade, and of provision for a temporary division by a curtain, which might be occasionally drawn either for warmth or privacy.

In the private houses as well as the public buildings, we may see examples of the depraved taste of the period, and bad plaster preferred to good stone-work, but in general the columns in the houses are of brick covered with stucco, and all the ornaments are of painted stucco. All the houses seem to have been ornamented with painting, and even the outside of the gate of the city has been stuccoed and painted. These painted decorations are of a light, fantastic architecture, but frequently of graceful forms. A similar style occurs in the baths of Titus at Rome, and the subjects have often been published. In the panels formed by these architectural representations, we find paintings of figures, of men and animals, of buildings, and of landscapes. The architectural part I am little inclined precisely to imitate even in painting, yet I think something may be extracted from it, and applied to the decoration of rooms with great advantage; and many hints may be gained from it. The paintings of buildings (as objects) which sometimes occur, are done without taste, and without any just perspective; they may give hints to the antiquary, rather than to the artist. You have heard the paintings of the figures compared to the compositions of Raphael or Guido. The comparison is ridiculous; they might more reasonably be put in competition with those of Polydore Caravaggio. The composition is very simple, but almost always good, hardly ever comprising more than two or three figures. The details of drawing are defective, but the form and attitude are graceful; the action lively and spirited, the colouring at once rich and natural. In short the effect is almost always pleasing; and without pretending to consider them as rivalling the first-rate productions of modern art, one may safely assert, that if we were to compare them with the decorations of the walls of any city of modern Europe, the advantage would be greatly, very greatly in favour of Pompei. The landscapes are much inferior to the figures.

You know that in these houses almost every utensil of the kitchen has been found, and of the other domestic establishments and toilet of the ancients, even to the little vessels of rouge with which the ladies heightened their colour. These are removed to the museum of Portici, or most of them now to that at Naples. It was the best thing which could be done, they would not have borne exposure to the air, and it would be too much to expect that a whole city should be converted into a covered museum. The same may be said of the best paintings; but enough is left to shew how they were disposed, and a few of them have sheds erected to protect them from the injurious effects of the atmosphere. Several narrow and inconvenient steps are remaining in various parts, which prove the occasional existence at least of an upper story, and some have vaults underneath, where the inequality of the ground required it.

Just out of the best preserved gateway, on the north-west of the city, is a long avenue of tombs. The most usual form is that of a large, oblong pedestal, surmounted with a scroll at each end, and placed on a high basement; but some of them are square buildings, ornamented with columns or pilasters, the foliage of whose capitals is in the style of those of Tivoli; and one is round. Two of the first sort remain nearly perfect, and are really very handsome; a great many others, stripped of their marble casings, offer to the eye mere masses of rubble-work; yet, damaged and imperfect as they are, they produce a powerful impression; perhaps however, rather because there is enough remaining to guide the imagination to the rest, than from the combinations which actually remain. In one of these tombs there was a marble door turning on pivots, a method which seems to have been generally adopted in the doors of the ancients: this door has been repaired. In another the cinerary urn, lamps, &c. are left in their niches, just as they were discovered: even these we find ornamented with stucco and painting in the same style as the houses. Besides the tombs, there are in the same street, three exhedræ, or semicircular benches of stone, each with a stone back; and the bench is terminated at each end with the winged leg of a lion; a favourite ornament at Pompei. One of these exhedræ is covered, but the covering seems not to have made part of the original design. We find also here a Triclinium, supposed to be for the lectisternium. It consists of a small court, about 19 feet by 13. The couch surrounding three sides of the table is a mass of rubble-work covered with stucco, the surface sloping from a small, oblong table, which is placed in the middle. Immediately in front of this table is a still smaller circular pedestal.

Many marble fragments are scattered about this part of the excavations, some of them are capitals, with a row of eight leaves at bottom, a flower or head above the leaves, and a kind of winged ornament; and a volute at the angle, formed of a sort of water-leaf, with a long curled point. Capitals exactly similar, are not unfrequent among the Athenian fragments, and as these at Pompei are of Pentelic marble, it is probable that they were brought from Athens.

Behind the tombs on each side of the way, there are remains of villas, one of which is attributed to Cicero; but these are very imperfectly exposed. At the end of the range is one belonging to Marcus Arrius Diomedes, which is a very interesting specimen of the domestic architecture of the time. The entrance is at the corner of a court, surrounded by columns, which are painted red and yellow. In one part there is a semicircular room, with three large openings into an unoccupied piece of ground, which one is apt to fancy, in compliance with our own habits, to have been irregularly ornamented with shrubs and flowers, and to have merited the name of a garden. There are two baths, one for hot, the other for cold water, with the stoves for warming the former, and several small rooms about them. At the back is a large court, surrounded by an open gallery, where square pillars and flat brick arches supply the place of columns and epistylia. This gallery is a story below the level of the entrance floor; a terrace on that level overlooks it, and there are vaulted rooms, which you might call cellars, underneath the terrace, but their rich decorations shew the taste of the owners for the coolness of these semi-subterranean apartments.

The mosaics at Pompei are of two sorts; the first has a groundwork of stucco, with a pattern formed of little squares of white marble, or sometimes of black, or of both, fixed into it. The footway of the streets is generally done in this manner; the white squares are placed diagonally in continued lines, at a considerable distance apart, and more appearance of design is produced from this simple arrangement than you would easily conceive; in the houses, where it is executed with more care, the effect is very good, but that composed of black squares is decidedly inferior to that where white alone are employed. The more finished mosaics are composed entirely of small squares, or tessere, generally black and white, but sometimes also of various colours; the patterns are very fanciful, some of them very good, but among the good there is nothing which has not long been in use in modern times, for one sort of ornament or another. These mosaics do not seem very ancient in Pompei, for wherever one finds them in use among the ancient architecture, they uniformly bury a portion of the lower part of it.

Since my former visits I find some additions to the number of objects which have been excavated. A new street usually known by the name of Strada de’ Mercanti has been opened into the forum. Part of this street was exposed in 1818, but the whole is now cleared, and the communication with the theatres completed. Towards the forum there is a step, and just at the foot of this step, a small cone, and about three feet above it, some places rubbed smooth, and somewhat hollow. Sir W. Gell has suggested that to stand upon this cone might be a mode of punishment. In another place in the same street there are remains of iron staples in the wall. One apparently to confine the elbow, and one to fasten a chain round the neck of some unfortunate offender. The stone here has been rubbed smooth and hollow by the shoulder, and in some degree also by the head of the prisoner; and there are other places in the street which seem to have been rubbed by the shoulder. If we suppose the ancients to have chained to their posts, the slaves who were employed as shopmen, we can hardly imagine that the confinement was so close as to give occasion to these marks.

An edifice of considerable splendour has been discovered at the north-east angle of the forum. Twelve pedestals disposed in a circle in the midst of a large open court, are imagined to have supported as many statues of the Dii majores gentium, and the building has thence obtained the name of Pantheon. The court seems to have been surrounded with columns, and to have had a temple-like hall at the further end, on each side of which was a large, irregular room, and one of these has a sort of dresser or counter, with a sloping top, along three of its sides. On the right hand of him who entered from the forum, was a double range of small rooms or cells, one over the other, which communicated by means of a wooden gallery, and probably of a wooden staircase, though of the latter no traces now remain. The walls exhibit historic paintings of no small merit, but neither the stucco nor the painting appear to have been completed. In the same neighbourhood, but beyond the bounds of the forum, we find the Temple of Fortune, a simple, tetrastyle, prostyle edifice on an elevated basement, which you ascend by a flight of steps. Near this are the Baths; the remaining vaulting of which rises so near the surface that we are surprised they should have remained so long unnoticed. There are four rooms; the first we enter was the spoliarium, or undressing room, and some traces were found of the pegs fixed in the wall to receive the clothes of the bathers. From this we may pass into the frigidarium, a room with a small, circular, cold bath, or into the tepidarium or sudatorium, in the wall of which we find a series of small niches, divided by caryatides; an immense brazier of bronze, stamped with a cow, in allusion to the name of the maker, Flaminius Vacca; and two benches of the same material. Beyond this room is the calidarium, containing a vessel of warm water, where the bathers seem to have been seated, leaning their backs against the sloping marble side. One end of this room is semicircular, and in this part there were five windows, in each of which, and also in one in the cold bath, were plates of very thick glass. Both the sudatorium and calidarium were lined with tiles, a little detached from the walls, which received the stucco. Another set of baths less ornamented, in an adjoining edifice, was for the use of the plebeians, or of the women.

Another interesting object among the late excavations is the House of the Tragic Poet: which however is more remarkable for the paintings with which it was adorned, than for the merits of its architecture. At the entrance is the figure of a dog in mosaic, with the inscription Cave Canem. The apartments are numerous and well finished, but one little closet with a stove, seems all that was allotted for the slaves or their employments. Here was found a cistern, of which, if the cicerone may be trusted, the substance has been analyzed, and found to consist of two parts of lead to one of copper. The substance is firm, and seems little, if at all oxidated, so that perhaps it might be worth imitating. Close by is the house of a fuller, with many of the conveniences and utensils of his trade; and what is curious, representations of different parts of the process painted on the piers.