“But the most complete specimen that we have of an ancient residence, is the villa which has been discovered, at a small distance without the gate. It is on a more splendid scale, than any of the houses in the town itself, and it has been preserved with scarcely any injury. Some have imagined that this was the Pompeianum—the Pompeian villa of Cicero. Be this as it may, it must have belonged to a man of taste. Situated on a sloping bank, the front entrance opens, as it were, into the first floor; below which, on the garden side, into which the house looks—for the door is the only aperture on the road side—is a ground floor, with spacious arcades, and open rooms, all facing the garden; and above are the sleeping-rooms. The walls and ceilings of this villa are ornamented with paintings of very elegant design, all which have a relation to the uses of the apartments in which they are placed. In the middle of the garden there is a reservoir of water, surrounded by columns, and the ancient well still remains. Though we have many specimens of Roman glass in their drinking vessels, it has been doubted, whether they were acquainted with the use of it in the windows. Swinburne, however in describing Pompeii, says, ‘In the window of a bed-chamber some panes of glass are remaining. This would seem to decide the question;—but they remain no longer.’
“The host was fond of conviviality, if we may judge from the dimension of his cellar, which extends under the whole of the house, and the arcades also, and many of the amphoræ remain, in which the wine was stowed. It was here that the skeletons of seven-and-twenty poor wretches were found, who took refuge in this place from the fiery shower that would have killed them at once, to suffer the lingering torments of being starved to death. It was in one of the porticos leading to the outward entrance, that the skeleton, supposed to be that of the master of the house, was found with a key in one hand, and a purse of gold in the other. So much for Pompeii.”—Matthews.
“⸺Thus deep beneath
Earth’s bosom, and the mansions of the graves
Of men, are graves of cities. Such of late,
From its long sleep of darkness disenterr’d,
Pompeii, with its low and buried roofs,
Rose dark upon the miner’s progress, like
A city of the dead! a tomb perchance
Where living men were buried! Tyrant Death!