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.
Puzzoli abounds with antiquities; but the temple of Jupiter Serapis is
the only one we had time to see. This was one of the most noble
structures yet brought to light; and we can never sufficiently lament,
that it has not been preserved in the state in which it was found.
The court is a square of one hundred and twenty feet, and was surrounded
by a magnificent colonnade, which, together with the roof and pavement,
were of beautiful marble. It contained many elegant statues, and every
other religious ornament; but the King was seized with such an avidity
for these treasures, that he had them all removed to his different
palaces, with the exception of four columns only, which are left, as a
sample, before the entrance of the inner temple, each eighteen feet in
circumference, and forty in height. The temple itself was again stopped
up with rubbish, after all its ornaments were taken away.
In the center of the court, an altar was raised for sacrifice; but, as
it was composed of the finest materials, it was crushed by the
earthquake that buried the temple. The base still remains, with the ring
to which the victim was tied, and the vessels for holding its blood.
LETTER VII.
TO CAPTAIN SMITH.
Naples, September 20th.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
WE returned to Naples, highly gratified with our expedition to Baia,
and, after a day's rest, set out for Mount Vesuvius. The foot of the
mountain is about six miles off. We went at night, in order to view the
crater to the greatest advantage, and were about two hours in walking
from the base to the hermitage. The road, although steep, is tolerably
good; and a light carriage may ascend the greatest part of it.
Father Pietro, the Hermit, received us with great hospitality; and,
although turned of eighty, he is by no means insensible to those charms
of society which are consistent with the gravity of his order. He seemed
a person of a liberal education, spoke with great judgment of the
ancients, and was well informed of the state of Europe at the time of
his retirement. In the course of conversation, he mentioned his having
been in England, which led us to enquire in what capacity. Conceive our
surprize, when this venerable sage told us that he had been a French
hair-dresser! But the frankness and the grace with which he made this
declaration, increased our esteem; and his conversation proved, that
however low his origin, his abilities and application had raised him
superior to most of us.
His habitation is a comfortable cottage, with a chapel, and a shrubbery
adjoining, at the extremity of one of the small mountains, of which
there are several round Vesuvius; and although half way up to the
crater, this spot is secured from the lava by a ridge which separates it
from the great cone; and should the burning matter run in this
direction, it would be thrown on each side. But it is not impossible
that he may some day be surrounded by it; and he is always exposed to
the stones and ashes thrown up by the mountain.
At three o'clock the next morning we prepared for the grand ascent, but
it rained so hard that our guide assured us it was impossible to
proceed; and, to our infinite disappointment, the weather did not clear
up till after daylight. We then took leave of our friendly hermit, and
after scrambling over large fields of rough lava, in less than two hours
reached the crater--an unfathomable fiery gulph, sunk from the summit of
a monstrous cone, which rises above every other branch of the mountain.
It emits an amazing column of smoke, so strongly impregnated with
sulphur, that it was not without danger of being suffocated, that we
were able to look down it, even on the side from which the wind blew.
The smoke and daylight prevented our seeing to any depth, but at night I
imagine that we should occasionally have discerned fire at the bottom.
We repeatedly heard a rumbling noise, not so much like that of thunder,
as of a brazen carriage rolling over a bridge. These were succeeded by
small explosions, which threw up large quantities of stones, accompanied
by a flame, which the light prevented our seeing to advantage.
Whilst the mountain is in this dangerous state, it is impossible to
measure the circumference of the crater exactly, but I am led to think
that it has been exaggerated, and that it does not exceed three hundred
yards. Its sides however sometimes fall in, and then the circumference
may be much greater.
Figure to yourself what a volume of smoke may be emitted from such a
source, and what an overwhelming torrent of liquid fire such a gulph may
produce! Our shoes were burnt in getting to its edge, for it is
surrounded either with new lava, or a hot, drossy substance powdered
with sulphur.
Sometimes the mountain is perfectly quiet for weeks together, but it has
been smoking ever since we arrived, with occasional explosions, which
threaten an approaching eruption. There was a slight one a few days
before we entered the bay, but the lava only descended about a mile from
the crater. It is still red hot, and at night may be seen at many
leagues distance.
The phenomena of lava and burning mountains have been variously
explained by different philosophers. Some, and these men of reputation
too, have followed the idea of the ancients, and suppose the center of
the earth to be fire, to which they are so extravagant as to imagine
volcanos are the chimneys. Others suppose them to be occasioned by the
fermentation of firestone, sulphur, and iron, the explosions of nitre,
of aqueous steam violently heated, or of air pent up and greatly
rarefied. All these doubtless assist, or contribute to the formation of
volcanos, but the only inexhaustible source of fire that I am informed
of, is the electric fluid, whose powers were not discovered before the
middle of this century. This is nothing more than the light of the sun
absorbed by the earth, which of course must be again emitted, just as we
receive in rain, the water and the damps he exhales from us. Whenever,
therefore, the electric fluid is absorbed in larger quantities than the
general outlets can return, it acts with uncommon violence, and breaks
forth either by an earthquake, or an eruption. When this happens, and
the eruption is not very violent, the burning matter rises gradually
from the bottom to the top of the crater, and when it has filled it, it
runs over like the boiling of an immense caldron. But sometimes it
scorns all bounds, and the crater, monstrous as it is, being
insufficient to give vent to its violence, the side of the mountain is
burst open, and thrown with inconceivable force to an immeasurable
height in the air. The lava then rushes forth in an impetuous torrent of
liquid fire, overwhelming every thing in its course. That of 1767 was
six miles long and two wide, and in some places, where it past over
cavities, it was sixty or seventy feet deep.
Eruptions are generally preceded and closed by an immense discharge of
stones and ashes, which often create more destruction than the lava
itself.
For some time after the eruption, the lava has the appearance of melted
glass, after which the upper part breaks into large pieces of a kind of
dross, which, in the course of time crumble into mould, and form the
richest soil imaginable, whilst the lower becomes hard stone. But this
is the process of many years, and consequently great part of Vesuvius is
horridly barren, whilst the rest is most beautifully cultivated.
A fog deprived us of the view from the top of the mountain; but, by what
I saw at the Hermitage, I think it would have been impossible to
describe it. The bay of Naples is upwards of fifty miles in
circumference, and the variety of curious and beautiful objects, which
strike the eye in every direction, render it one of the most pleasing
and interesting sights which it is possible to behold. The capital of
the kingdom is in the center, with a superb Carthusian monastery, and
the Castle of St. Ilmo above it. On the west the public walk of the
Chiaja, adorned with several elegant fountains, and a double row of
trees. Beyond it Mount Pausilippe, with the Tomb of Virgil; the road and
town of Puzzoli; the Solfaterra, and Monte Nuovo; the remains of the
Lucrine Lake, and the ruins of Baia, bounded by the celebrated Cape of
Misenus, and the Isle of Ischia. On the east the gardens, palace, and
museum of Portici, built over the ruins of Herculaneum, Mount Vesuvius
throwing forth an amazing volume of smoke in a variety of shapes,
according to the wind, with its base covered with vineyards, convents,
and villas, rising out of the ashes of Pompeia and Stabia. Beyond these
Castello Mare, closed by the Promontory of Gampenela, and the Island of
Capria. The whole country is in the highest state of cultivation, richly
clothed with beautiful trees, most of which are evergreens.
The entrance of the bay is on the south-west side, and is near fifteen
miles wide. Off the town there are two moles, one for the King's
galleys, the other for the larger men of war and merchantmen, with three
castles to defend them. But notwithstanding these works, and the Citadel
of St. Ilmo, which, from its height, is unassailable, and that its
garrison is sheltered by excellent casemates, I think ten sail of the
line might lay this capital in ashes, as a first rate man of war may lie
close to the shore.
By Sir William Hamilton's desire, we, this morning, took a boat from the
Pearl, and after rowing along the west side of the town, and passing the
ruins of Queen Joan's Palace, landed at a small village, he was so good
as to point out to us, in the neighbourhood of which we saw the remains
of Pollio's Villa, with the subterranean fish-ponds, in which he used to
feed lampreys on human flesh. There are some busts of his family in the
garden, and several inscriptions to remind us of his abominable luxury.
LETTER VIII.
TO CAPTAIN SMITH.
Naples, September 24th.
MY DEAR FRIEND,
On a hill, a little without this city, the King has a palace, called
Capo de Monté, in which there is a museum, and a numerous collection of
paintings, the best of which is Titian's celebrated Danaæ. Nothing can
be more beautiful, or expressive of enjoyment, than her face, or more
elegantly shaped than her person: but, dared I suppose it possible to
improve the design of so perfect a master, I would say, that, for
Jupiter's sake, I wish that her knees were less drawn up.
Scidon's Charity is a divine figure, and, if possible, exalts that
heavenly virtue.
The Dead Christ, by A. Carraccio; Mary Magdalen, by Giucino; Peter
denying Christ, by Morillo; the Virgin Mary, with St. Ann, Jesus, and
John the Baptist, by Raphael, are among the best pieces.
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.
Footnote 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.
A little without the gates, we saw the burying-place of the Terentian
family. It is a small pile, with a tower in the center, with niches for
the urns, and several distorted, weeping faces on the walls. In one of
the wells in the town, we found several skulls, which were thrown there
when the houses were cleared out.
About a quarter of a mile farther, we came to a noble villa, which, from
its size, and the furniture found in it, must have belonged to some
person of consequence. The lower part is inhabited by some peasants, who
cultivate the garden within the court, and who presented us with some of
the grapes which it produces. The cellars form three sides of a square,
under the terrace in front of the house, each side one hundred and sixty
feet long. We were shewn several jars, whose contents were solid, and
which, at the time of the eruption, were full of wine.
From hence we drove to Portici, to see the museum, where every thing
taken out of Pompeia and Herculaneum is collected. It consists of
sixteen rooms, in which the different articles are arranged with very
great taste. The floors are paved with mosaic, taken up from the
recovered towns, and the walls of the court are lined with inscriptions.
Exclusive of busts and statues, medals, and intaglios, lamps and
tripods, innumerable; there is not an article used by the ancients, of
which a specimen may not be seen in this museum. We were shewn some
Household Gods, and every implement used in worship, or sacrifice,
agriculture, and cookery. A kitchen completely furnished, in a style
that would do justice to a London Alderman. Several scales, weights, and
measures, and different instruments of music and surgery. Some loaves of
bread, with the maker's name. Different kinds of shell fruit. Tickets of
admission for the theatre, and, what rather lessened our veneration for
the ancients, some loaded dice, and a box of rouge. They had mirrors
too, which were of brass highly polished, for they had not the art of
making glass reflect by quicksilver.
One of the apartments is filled with obscene devices, particularly
rings, which were worn by the chastest matrons, as charms against
sterility; for the Romans accustomed their women to this kind of
objects, just as they did their youth to danger, that they might learn
to behold them unmoved. This accounts for the very great number that
have been found. Some of them are highly laughable. But the moderns have
learned more delicacy; and this apartment is never exposed to the
ladies.
The _Satyr and She Goat_ was thought so dangerous a representation, that
it was very properly removed to a separate house; and nothing but its
exquisite workmanship prevented its being destroyed.
It is much to be lamented that the article which might be of most
service to mankind, is the most difficult to be recovered, I mean the
ancient books. These were written on scrolls rolled up, and by the heat
of the ashes, were burnt into the appearance of charcoal. No pains have
been spared to unfold them, but the operation is attended with such
immense difficulty, that as yet but four have been brought to light, and
these in so mutilated a state, that though the letters which are left
are perfect, I fear they can never be of any real use. But this by no
means lessens the merit of Padre Piaggi and his pupils. It is miraculous
that they have succeeded so well; and their ingenuity and perseverance
cannot be too much applauded.
Several of the rooms in the Palace of Portici, which is adjoining to the
museum, are lined with the paintings cut out of Pompeia; but though they
are reckoned the best, they do not appear to me to equal those that
remain on their native walls.
The equestrian statues of Marcus Nonius Balbus, and his son, at the foot
of the great staircase, are both remarkably light and elegant. One has
the greater pleasure in admiring them, from their being a tribute to
virtue, erected after their death by the citizens of Herculaneum, of
which they were Pro-consuls.
Portici is about six miles from Naples, at the foot of Vesuvius; the
theatre of Herculaneum is a little beyond the Palace, and Pompeia about
seven miles farther, all on the great road to Castello Mare. No
excavations having been made at Stabia, we did not go there.
LETTER IX.
TO CAPTAIN SMITH.
Naples, September 27th.
MY DEAR SIR,
Engagements in Naples, which we could not decline, and the shortness of
our stay, allowed us to make but one more excursion to the country. This
was to the new palace at Casertta. The outside has nothing to boast of
but the grandeur of its size; but for convenience, the plan is, perhaps,
the best which has ever been laid out. It is a square of six hundred
feet each side; and that no room may be lost, the interior court is
divided into four, by a range of buildings in the shape of a cross, the
head of which forms a most magnificent church, lined with the marble
from the Temple of Serapis at Puzzoli. It hath not many paintings, but
that of the Presentation is reckoned inestimable. I do not mean to
criticise this admirable work, but it is natural to imagine that the
painter intended the Virgin Mary to be his principal character, and yet,
in spite of myself, my attention was constantly drawn from her to the
surrounding figures.
The great staircase forms one of the finest _coup d'oeils_ of the kind I
ever beheld. It is in the center of the whole edifice, opposite the
church gates. The dome is painted with Apollo and the Muses, in a
circle, and the four seasons in the corners. The steps and balustrade
are all of marble of different colours, on a very grand scale, crowned
with two capital lions. If any fault can be found with this elegant
piece of architecture, it is that the area below is too small in
proportion to the grandeur of this part of the building.