DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0341
RUINS OF HERCULANEUM. 305
and even what seem to have been the trees that stood in
the town, and blocks and billets for fuel, together with the
earth and matter that appears to have overwhelmed the
place, all so blended and crushed, and, as it were, so
mixed together, that it is far easier to conceive than to de-
scribe.—The ruin in general is not to be expressed.
“ Having given your lordship this general account, I
will now run over the most remarkable particulars I saw,
just as they occur to me, without pretending to order : for
as I have hinted already, it was impossible for me to know
in what order they stand in respect of each other.
“ I saw the outside of a rotunda, which may have been
a temple; it is crowned with a dove; it may be about
thirty feet in diameter : but I forbear to say any thing of
measures ; for they will allow of none to be taken. Near
it I saw the lower part of a Corinthian column upon the
loftiest proportioned brick pedestal I ever observed, and
thereabouts some very solid buildings, I soon after passed
over what, by the length we saw of it, appears to have
been a very vast Mosaic pavement. We soon afterwards
perceived ourselves to be got into the inside of a dwelling-
house : the rooms appear to have been but small; they are
lined with stucco, and painted with a ground of deep red ;
adorned with compartments either of white or light yellow,
and some other colours : our lights were not good enough
to make us distinguish. In these compartments were gro-
tesque paintings of birds, beasts, masks, festoons, and the
like.
“ Soon afterwards, with some difficulty, and by creep-
ing up a very narrow hole of loose earth, we got into an
upper apartment of another house. The floor was of
stucco, and the earth and rubbish wras cleared away from
under a great part of it, and found a room lined and
adorned in the same manner, and in the same colours, and
with the same ground of deep red as the sides. This
room
and even what seem to have been the trees that stood in
the town, and blocks and billets for fuel, together with the
earth and matter that appears to have overwhelmed the
place, all so blended and crushed, and, as it were, so
mixed together, that it is far easier to conceive than to de-
scribe.—The ruin in general is not to be expressed.
“ Having given your lordship this general account, I
will now run over the most remarkable particulars I saw,
just as they occur to me, without pretending to order : for
as I have hinted already, it was impossible for me to know
in what order they stand in respect of each other.
“ I saw the outside of a rotunda, which may have been
a temple; it is crowned with a dove; it may be about
thirty feet in diameter : but I forbear to say any thing of
measures ; for they will allow of none to be taken. Near
it I saw the lower part of a Corinthian column upon the
loftiest proportioned brick pedestal I ever observed, and
thereabouts some very solid buildings, I soon after passed
over what, by the length we saw of it, appears to have
been a very vast Mosaic pavement. We soon afterwards
perceived ourselves to be got into the inside of a dwelling-
house : the rooms appear to have been but small; they are
lined with stucco, and painted with a ground of deep red ;
adorned with compartments either of white or light yellow,
and some other colours : our lights were not good enough
to make us distinguish. In these compartments were gro-
tesque paintings of birds, beasts, masks, festoons, and the
like.
“ Soon afterwards, with some difficulty, and by creep-
ing up a very narrow hole of loose earth, we got into an
upper apartment of another house. The floor was of
stucco, and the earth and rubbish wras cleared away from
under a great part of it, and found a room lined and
adorned in the same manner, and in the same colours, and
with the same ground of deep red as the sides. This
room