DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0035
THE SITUATION OF POMPEII
5
flows down through the gardens, the roomy atriums and
colonnades of the houses, the silent streets, and the buildings
about the Forum, with an effect indescribably soothing.
How shall I undertake to convey to the reader who has
not visited Pompeii, an impression of the beauty of its situa-
tion ? Words are weak when confronted with the reality. Sea,
mountains, and plain, — strong and pleasing background, — great
Fig. 3.— View from Pompeii, looking south.
masses and brilliant yet harmonious colors, splendid foreground
effects and hazy vistas, undisturbed nature and the handiwork
of man, all are blended into a landscape of the grand style,
the like of which I should not know where else to look for.
If we turn toward the south, we have at our feet the level
plain of the Sarno, in antiquity as now —- we may suppose — not
checkered with villages but dotted here and there with groups
of farm buildings, surrounded with stately trees. Beyond the
plain rises the lofty barrier of Monte Sant’ Angelo, thickly wooded
5
flows down through the gardens, the roomy atriums and
colonnades of the houses, the silent streets, and the buildings
about the Forum, with an effect indescribably soothing.
How shall I undertake to convey to the reader who has
not visited Pompeii, an impression of the beauty of its situa-
tion ? Words are weak when confronted with the reality. Sea,
mountains, and plain, — strong and pleasing background, — great
Fig. 3.— View from Pompeii, looking south.
masses and brilliant yet harmonious colors, splendid foreground
effects and hazy vistas, undisturbed nature and the handiwork
of man, all are blended into a landscape of the grand style,
the like of which I should not know where else to look for.
If we turn toward the south, we have at our feet the level
plain of the Sarno, in antiquity as now —- we may suppose — not
checkered with villages but dotted here and there with groups
of farm buildings, surrounded with stately trees. Beyond the
plain rises the lofty barrier of Monte Sant’ Angelo, thickly wooded