The museum contains a complete set of medals in gold, silver and copper, of all the Roman Emperors; a variety of beautiful cameos, antique vases, and a copy of the Farnese Bull.
Our next grand object was to visit the recovered towns of Herculaneum and Pompeia, which, after being buried near seventeen hundred years, were again brought to light by the present King of Spain[[2]], whilst he was on the throne of Naples.
[2]. Died on the 13th of December, 1788.
These towns were lost in the reign of Titus, by the memorable eruption of Vesuvius, in the year of our Lord 79, when the mountain threw forth such a torrent of stones and lava, that Herculaneum and Stabia were buried near eighty feet deep in ashes, consolidated by liquid fire.
In the revolution of so many ages, the spot they stood upon was entirely forgotten: but, towards the end of the last century, some inscriptions were found, which led to a discovery of their situation; but it was not till the year 1738, that any public excavations were made.
The King met with so much success in his first attempt, that, notwithstanding the expence of digging through sixty or eighty feet of hard stone, he laid open a considerable part of Herculaneum; but the difficulty of removing the rubbish induced his Majesty to fill it up again as he went on, after collecting all the moveables of any consequence. The theatre alone is left open. It is larger than any in England; and the ends of the beams, burnt to coal, are still seen sticking in the walls; but all the ornaments that withstood the eruption are removed to Portici.
No lava having ever gone over the ashes which buried Pompeia, it was much easier cleared. Three divisions are quite open. The first is a small square, which, our Cicerone told us, was the soldiers quarters. There are several small apartments round it; in one of which we saw the skeletons of seventeen poor wretches, who were confined by the ancles in an iron machine. Many other bodies were found, some of them in circumstances which plainly shew that they were endeavouring to escape when the eruption overtook them. Near the barracks, there is a theatre, and a temple of Isis; but, as all their ornaments have been removed, they have now little but their antiquity to make them worth seeing.
But a little farther, two streets, with all their houses, are entirely cleared, and look like a small town, lately abandoned. The streets are just wide enough for two carriages to pass each other; and the ruts worn by the wheels, are still to be seen, as well as names, and several military figures, cut in a rough manner by the soldiers on the walls of their quarters. A path is raised on each side of the street, for foot passengers.
Most of the houses have a terrace at top, in the Italian style; and some of them have baths and stoves to heat the walls. The floors, in general, are paved with mosaic of the common kind; and the sides of the rooms were all ornamented with paintings on the bare plaster, which we call in distemper. Some of them are exceedingly beautiful; but most of the best have been taken away. Among those that remain, the most striking are, Narcissus pining for his own figure; Orpheus and Eurydice; Diana and Endymion; variety of dogs and game; several dishes of fish, fowl and vegetables; a capital helmet; some beautiful landscapes, and light festoons of the most elegant patterns: all as perfect as the day they were painted.