And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralist to die.”
Then the villages are not collections of neat cottages, each with its little garden, and its trim hedge, but of large, shabby, forlorn-looking houses, disposed on each side of a narrow, crooked street, always uneven, often stony, the remains of a former pavement, and where high, stone walls shut out all view from the traveller.
I have been once to Pompei, but I do not intend to enter into any particulars of that place, till I have obtained permission to make drawings there, and have seen it more at leisure. I will, however, give you some account of my excursion. The first object on the road is Portici, where the kings of Naples have erected a palace, and where there is a museum, consisting almost exclusively of paintings discovered at Herculaneum, Stabia, and Pompei; the other articles having now been mostly removed to Naples.[[25]] Some of them are very beautifully designed, and many of the ornaments are highly elegant. The figures in general are spirited and graceful, but the drawing is by no means exact in the detail.
In the old part of the palace, the apartments are very tawdry; one room is entirely lined with porcelain, with representations of figures and landscapes; the effect is ugliness, but those fitted up by Murat for himself and his queen are very beautiful.
At Herculaneum nothing is shown but the Theatre, and that by torch-light, as it is entirely subterraneous, and the whole consequently cannot be displayed at once; but we trace the disposition as well as we can, as we reach the different parts separately, by means of passages cut in the rock. This is not a lava, but a hard tufo, formed by the concretion of the small substances thrown out by the volcano, and afterwards apparently consolidated by water. It has very accurately adapted itself to the form of the walls and vaults of the ancient city. Not only have the excavations ceased, but some parts which were dug out have been filled up again for fear of injury to the town, and particularly to the palace above.
After leaving Portici, the road is not good, but we pass through Torre del Greco and Torre dell’ Annunziata, in our way to Pompei. The former place is intersected by the streams of lava which have so often destroyed it. They present a tolerably even surface on the whole extent, but excessively rough and broken in the detail, which you see when you are on it, but at a little distance the eye passes over these inequalities, and the whole has the appearance of a field of rich soil, cross ploughed, with the clods unbroken, and still perfectly naked. The tower of the principal church is half buried, and in two or three other churches the ancient doorway has been filled up, and the present entrance is by a descending flight of steps, through what was originally the large front window. Torre dell’ Annunziata is famous for its manufacture of maccaroni.
Pompei lies quite beyond Vesuvius, and recollecting its catastrophe, we are surprised at its distance from the mountain. We are not suffered (unless a permission to draw have been previously obtained) to go about without a guide, and these take you in regular succession to the soldiers’ quarters, the theatres, the amphitheatre, the forum, with its surrounding temples and public buildings, to several private houses, to the street of the tombs, and the villa of Marcus Arrius Diomed. The whole having been covered with earth, many of the walls look as if they were new. We see almost everywhere ancient columns of stone covered by later work in stucco; the first design and execution being much superior to the more recent; a circumstance not to have been expected, as the eruption which destroyed the city took place in the reign of Titus, when the fine arts are usually supposed to have been in a state of high perfection. An earthquake had considerably damaged the city sixteen years before the fatal eruption which overwhelmed it, and we still readily trace the half finished restorations. This helps us in many cases to a precise date, which we could not otherwise have obtained. The names of the inhabitants remain written on the walls just by the door, but where the termination is observed, it is always in the accusative case, a circumstance which has puzzled the antiquaries. The profession is judged from the indications observed within. In one house surgeon’s instruments were discovered, and it is remarkable, that the room where these were found, has a large window open to the sky, and not under a portico, which is the case with almost all the other openings in the interior of the houses at Pompei: in another, wine-jars, still tinged with the fur of the wine; in another, cups, and marks of these having been placed wet on the marble-covered counter, has given occasion to believe that the place was one where hot liquors were sold, something in the nature of a modern coffee-house; in another was the iron-work of a carriage, with the impression of the wood on the earth, and sometimes bits of charcoal. We spent five hours in merely looking about us, and as it appeared at the time rather hastily than otherwise. It brings antiquity home to us, and produces a feeling of intimacy and sympathy with it, which nothing else can give.
Another excursion not to be neglected in the neighbourhood of Naples is to Caserta. Two architectural friends accompanied me on this occasion, and we first visited the Ponte della Maddalena, an aqueduct, as you know, across a deep valley, made in order to convey water to the foolish cascade at Caserta. I believe the water does further service, but this seems the principal object for maintaining it at so great an elevation.
We slept at Caserta, and the next morning, the 1st of October, went to old Capua, where there are remains of a gateway, and of an amphitheatre, of many tombs, and probably of some villas. The gateway, as was usual at the entrance of cities, is of two arches, that those who entered might not interrupt such as were going out. There are three niches, and evident signs of a marble covering. The outside of the city-gates was a place of meeting for the inhabitants, and a large portion of ornament was therefore justly bestowed upon them.