DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.847#0327
304 TUSCANIA.
the manufacture of their native state, than to send
for the more beautiful produce of another city. A
larger sarcophagus than any of the others stood in
the middle of the chamber. It was uncovered, and
contained what remained of the skeleton and
armour of the head of the family of Velthuri.
There he lay with his helmet, his greaves, and his
two spears, after the fashion of classical antiquity,
and all around him in the coffin there was the
strangest assemblage of little odds and ends that I
ever saw. If we may be permitted to judge of the
old warrior's tastes, by the things which were buried
along with him, he must in his day and generation
have been a passionate lover of Rococo, with very
little discrimination—in short a collector of trash,
like so many preservers of pseudo curiosities among
ourselves. There were quantities of little pieces of
enamel, and transparent coloured pastas, clear stones
or compositions, some like topaz, and others like ame-
thyst, balls of perfume, utensils of bronze of all sorts,
shapes, and sizes, and for all manner of uselessness.
And lastly, I pulled out what gave me rather an
unpleasant insight into Signor Velthuri's character,
and a bad idea of the employment of his lighter
hours, a pair of dice, which, if my memory fails me
not, were loaded. I will not positively say that
General Velthuri was guilty of unfair play, although,
at the distance of two thousand years, I dread not
the risk of prosecution for libel; but this must
have been a fashionable vice among his country-
the manufacture of their native state, than to send
for the more beautiful produce of another city. A
larger sarcophagus than any of the others stood in
the middle of the chamber. It was uncovered, and
contained what remained of the skeleton and
armour of the head of the family of Velthuri.
There he lay with his helmet, his greaves, and his
two spears, after the fashion of classical antiquity,
and all around him in the coffin there was the
strangest assemblage of little odds and ends that I
ever saw. If we may be permitted to judge of the
old warrior's tastes, by the things which were buried
along with him, he must in his day and generation
have been a passionate lover of Rococo, with very
little discrimination—in short a collector of trash,
like so many preservers of pseudo curiosities among
ourselves. There were quantities of little pieces of
enamel, and transparent coloured pastas, clear stones
or compositions, some like topaz, and others like ame-
thyst, balls of perfume, utensils of bronze of all sorts,
shapes, and sizes, and for all manner of uselessness.
And lastly, I pulled out what gave me rather an
unpleasant insight into Signor Velthuri's character,
and a bad idea of the employment of his lighter
hours, a pair of dice, which, if my memory fails me
not, were loaded. I will not positively say that
General Velthuri was guilty of unfair play, although,
at the distance of two thousand years, I dread not
the risk of prosecution for libel; but this must
have been a fashionable vice among his country-