We therefore repassed the Sibyl's Cave, and returning to the Lucrine Lake, again embarked, and proceeded along the shore to the foot of Nero's Palace, where the sand under the sea water is so hot, that we could scarcely touch it. The effect of subterraneous fire.
The baths are above. These are several large chambers, divided into different apartments for the men and women, with two subterranean passages leading to the water, which unite at the distance of two hundred yards from the spring. Here the heat is so excessive and insupportable, that it is supposed no longer necessary to continue the separate passages, since even should persons of different sexes advance thus far, there is no danger of their being noticed by each other, for to get here cost us great pain; and all our clothes, in a few seconds, were wet through with perspiration.
This is what they call bathing, for nobody can bear the water. One of our guides, for a pecuniary reward, brought a little in a bucket, and boiled some eggs in it, which were afterwards served at our table in a shady spot on the adjoining classic ground; and we crowned this grateful repast with the health of a favorite fair, in a smiling bumper of real Falernian, from the very vineyards which have been celebrated by Horace. The wine was remarkably good, and the heavenly toast gave it a still higher flavour. I am convinced that it would have found its way to England, had not the Italians lost the art of preserving it. One must therefore either drink it new or sour.
About two miles from Nero's Baths, we were shewn the Temple of Diana, a large dome, one half of which was destroyed by an earthquake, the other remains. The Temple of Mercury is on the opposite side of a modern bridge. The dome is still entire, and is seventy feet in diameter. It has a similar effect to the whispering gallery at St. Paul's. Part of the roof is lined with common mosaic. The walls of the different out-offices are still standing, and the court has been lately planted with lemon and orange trees, which, in time, will add greatly to the beauty of its appearance. This spot seems to have been particularly sacred, for not an hundred yards further is a large octagon tower, the remains of a Temple of Venus Genetrix, but no other vestige of it is left.
Here we again embarked, and after rowing some little way along the shore, landed and walked to the top of a hill, from which we had a view of the Elysian Fields, and of Lake Acheron below us. The lake is changed, like Avernus, but the Elysian Fields are still a beautiful wilderness. On our way we passed several ancient burying-places, and a variety of other ruins--ruins in the truest sense of the word, for the whole is an heap of rubbish.
A little beyond this is the famous reservoir constructed for the use of the Roman Navy. The roof is supported by forty-eight square pillars, with a proportional number of arches, something in the style of the Nun's Cistern at Gibraltar, but on a scale so much more grand, that it would contain above an hundred times the quantity of water.
From thence we proceeded through a vineyard to an amazing subterraneous building, supposed to have been Nero's prisons. The gallery is about twelve feet high, and nine wide. We were told that it proceeds in a right line from the entrance to the sea, and is divided into near an hundred apartments; but as it is full of stones, and as the air is said to be prodigiously hurtful, we could not prevail on our guide to descend to any distance in this direction, but, turning to the left, we entered a range of apartments in the form of a cross, which we supposed were for the officers, as the partition walls are only carried to within two feet of the arch. In the inmost fourteen bronze lamps were found. The niches they stood in still remain. On striking the ground, it returned a hollow sound, as if there was a range of prisons beneath.
As soon as we returned to day-light, we descended to the sea-side, to the tomb of Agrippina. It is an arched vault, fifteen feet long, and nine wide, almost filled up with rubbish. The walls are covered with elegant basso-relievo miniature figures, in small squares, remarkably neat and beautiful; one represents a female deity, with extended wings, soaring in the air; two others are women reclining on a couch, but so choaked up with smoke and soot from the torches, that it is impossible to determine who they are: the workmanship, however, one easily perceives, exhibits the hand of a capital master, who has displayed so much taste, beauty and harmony, that we are almost tempted to forget Agrippina's crimes; and, in pitying her fate, we redouble our horror at the inhuman parricide who sent her to her tomb.
It is not known by whom this monument was erected; and I think it not improbable, that it might have been ordered by Nero himself, since he is reported to have said, that, had he known how beautiful his mother was, he never would have destroyed her.
Having now seen every thing on the coast of Baia, we returned to Puzzoli, and, to our inexpressible concern, found that it was too late to continue our excursion to Cuma.